


The Cheerleaders of Triskelion.

by steeleye



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-21
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-12-15 17:13:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 52,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/851987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Cheerleader try-out time at Sunnydale High and both Buffy and Cordelia are looking to get on the squad. However, after an outbreak of spontaneous, cheerleader, combustion, Cordy is struck down by a bout of 'extreme klutziness'. As if this isn't enough, Buffy has to save Cordy from being hit by a truck, just before the two girls vanish into thin air! This leaves Giles, Willow, Xander and novice witch Amy Madison, to try and work out what's happening and bring the two girls home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One.

The Cheerleaders of Triskelion.

By Dave Turner.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Star Trek the Original Series. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** This started out as a Xover with the ST:TOS episode 'The Gamesters of Triskelion', but it got hi-jacked somewhere along the way.

**Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious English-English which is different to American-English.

**Timeline:** BtVS episode 1.3 'The Witch' and ST:TOS Season Two, 'The Gamesters of Triskelion'.

**Words:** 18 Chapters of 2500+ words.

**Warnings:** Warnings for sexual assault and non-consensual sex.

**Summary:** Someone or something in Sunnydale doesn't like, or, likes cheerleaders too much. Buffy and Cordy find themselves on the planet of Triskelion were they are forced to fight for their lives. While back in Sunnydale Giles, Willow, Xander and Amy try to work out what's happening. Warning for sexual assault and non-consensual sex.

0=0=0=0

**Authors Note:** I think it would be unfair of me not to point out that none of the crew of the USS Enterprise appear in this fic. Sorry for any disappointment caused.

0=0=0=0

**The Library, Sunnydale High School, 1997.**

Giles stared at Buffy in growing horror, how could she do such a thing, he asked himself, didn't she realise that the fate of the very world might one day rest on her shoulders?

“What can you have been thinking?” Giles demanded as he faced his slayer, “Were you even thinking because this is madness!” He shook his head unable to comprehend what Buffy was proposing to do, “You are the Slayer, lives depend on you. I make allowances for your age, but I expect a certain amount of responsibility,” Giles started to pace backwards and forwards in front of Buffy, “instead of which you enslave yourself to this...” Giles stopped pacing and gestured in frustration at his slayer, “...this...cult!”

“You don't like the colour?” Buffy asked innocently; she was dressed in her old Hemery High cheerleader's uniform complete with pompoms.

“I...” Giles began to say something but paused after the first 'I'; he took a deep breath and started again, “Do you ignore everything I say?” he asked as he started to tidy books so he wouldn't have to look at Buffy directly, “Hmmm?”

“No,” Buffy held her pompoms up in front of her chest, “I think that's you trick...and any way,” Buffy took a couple of bouncy steps over to where Giles was standing and thrust her pompoms at him, “I told you I was going to try-out for the cheerleading squad.”

“You have a sacred birthright, Buffy,” Giles manfully tried to ignore the pompoms that had been thrust into his face, “You've been chosen to fight the forces of evil and not to....” Giles paused as he found himself staring down at Buffy, fascinated by her pompoms in-spite of himself, “...erm...wave your pompoms at people and as your Watcher, I forbid it.”

In a way Giles could sympathise with Buffy wanting to do some sort of non-slayer related activity, but damn it all, the safety of the world was at stake here.

“And you'll be stopping me how?” Buffy asked as she absently played with her pompoms, making them rustle as she shook them about.

“By, erm, appealing to your common sense,” deep down Giles knew that trying to appeal to the common sense of a sixteen year old girl was pointless, but he thought he'd gave it a try even so.

“I'll still have time to fight the forces of evil,” Buffy explained as she advanced on Giles still clutching her pompoms tightly in her hands, “I just wanna have a life...” Buffy turned on her best 'downtrodden slayer' look, the one she'd been perfecting these last few weeks, “I wanna do something normal...” standing really close to Giles she pressed her pompoms against his chest again, “...something safe.”

0=0=0=0

**The Gym, later.**

“Giles didn't approve, huh?” Willow asked as Buffy, Xander and herself walked into the gym where thirty or so athletic, teenage girls were practising their cheerleading moves.

“No,” Buffy sighed sadly, “he totally wigged out, but as we haven't even seen a vampire in over a week, I'd say he should get a girlfriend if he wasn't like, so old.”

“Don't worry Buffy,” Willow smiled encouragingly, “we're right behind you.”

“People scoff at things like school spirit,” Xander announced only just managing not to trip over his tongue as it was hanging out so much, “but look at these girls giving their all, with their pompoms and everything.” Stopping in his journey through cheerleader nirvana, Xander turned to watch one girl doing the splits between two chairs, “Oooooh stretchy!” 

Buffy rolled her eyes at her male shaped friend and walked off towards the desk where she could register her intention of trying out for the cheerleader squad.

“Where was I?” Xander asked absently as he continued to watch the girls doing their exercises.

“You were pretending that seeing scantily clad girls in revealing poses was a spiritual experience,” Willow replied as she wondered why Xander never saw her like that.

Well, Willow continued in her mind, to see her like that she'd have to dress in a skimpy outfit and pose in revealing and sexually exciting positions and to do that she'd need to join the cheerleading squad...or at the very least buy a cheerleader's uniform, but doing that would lead to madness and hey, these girls were so much more pretty than she was and she could see how Xander could get all turned on by them and that girl really _was_ majorly stretchy; Willow took a deep mental breath before she passed out.

“Who said I was pretending?” Xander smiled as he continued over to where Buffy was now sitting on the benches at the side of the gym.

“W-what?” Willow shook her head to get the visions of stretchy, topless, cheerleaders having pillow fights out of her head, before following her friend and sitting down next to Buffy.

“Just look at that Amber,” this was from Cordelia who'd walked over to sit down next to Willow.

Flinching away from Cordelia, Willow wondered why the peppy girl was talking to her. Cordy never talked to her unless it was to say something cutting or generally mean; Willow found herself thinking how nice Cordy looked and wondering if she was really stretchy too...and hey Cordy's pompoms looked really big with that outfit she was wearing.

“Who does she think she is?” Cordelia demanded as she turned to look right at Willow, “A Laker Girl or something?”

“I...I heard she turned them down,” Willow replied surprising herself by actually talking to Cordelia.

Before Willow could say anything more, the girl in charge of the try-outs started to speak explaining how everything was going to be organised. Sitting there on the lower level of the spectator's benches, Willow found herself watching Cordelia as she got up and moved gracefully across the floor of the gym. Cordy was always so nicely dressed, Willow sighed to herself, her hair and make-up was always perfect and the way she was playing with her pompoms making them bounce up and down like that, it made Willow's heart skip a beat.

Dragging her eyes away from Cordelia, Willow focused on Buffy. Willow had never had a girlfriend like Buffy before. At first Willow had believed that Buffy only wanted to know her so she could get caught up with her school work. It had taken some time for Willow to realise that Buffy really liked her for herself and not just because she came top in most of her classes. Watching Buffy standing with the other cheerleaders while the first girl started her individual routine, Willow suddenly realised just how pretty Buffy was, she glanced at Xander who was also staring at Buffy and ignoring the girl who was dancing. So pretty that Xander only had eyes for her, why couldn't he see her like he saw Buffy? It wasn't fair, she'd known Xander since forever, didn't he realise that she'd do anything for him? It was enough to turn a girl gay or something.

Turning back to look at the first prospective cheerleader as she came to the end of her routine, Willow frowned, there was something wrong. Like why was there smoke coming from the girl's pompoms?

“Hey,” Willow gasped, “that girls on fire!”

“Yeah,” Xander agreed, “you can see it too, huh?”

“NO!” Willow cried as she stood up and pointed to where smoke and flames started to consume the dancer's pompoms, “I mean she's really on fire!”

Alerted by Willow's warning, Buffy jumped up and pulled down a banner from the wall of the gym. While everyone else stood around panicking and screaming, Buffy ran towards Amber. Body checking the flaming cheerleader, Buffy knocked her to the ground and threw the banner over the girl's blazing pompoms to stifle the conflagration. Once the fire was out, Buffy hugged the burnt girl and tried to say soothing things, but her words were drowned out by the injured girl's screams of pain. After what felt like an eternity the school nurse finally turned up and shortly after that the paramedics arrived and took the girl away; one thing was for sure, Amber would not be making the cheerleading squad.

0=0=0=0

**Revelo Drive, after school.**

After meeting up with her friends in the library after the outbreak of spontaneous cheerleader combustion, Buffy had headed home. Willow was hacking into the school computer records trying to find out all she could about Amber, while Xander was going around asking Amber's friends if there was anything upsetting Amber which might cause her to burst into flames. While Willow and Xander were investigating Amber, Giles was finding out all he could about spontaneous combustion, which left Buffy to do...well, to do not much of anything. With nothing to do Buffy wished her friends good luck and headed on home, after all she did have to patrol tonight. At least that's what she told herself so the part of her mind that was acting all guilty about leaving her friends doing all the research would shut up and give her some peace.

Walking into the kitchen, Buffy found her mother trying to open one of a multitude of wooden crates that were cluttering up the room.

“Hey! Buffy called as she leaned against the door frame; she watched her mom struggle with a crowbar as she tried to open the large wooden crate which was balanced precariously on the breakfast bar.

“Hi!” Buffy's mother replied to the accompaniment of the sound of splintering wood, “How was school?”

“A reverent joy,” Buffy replied as she crossed the kitchen still watching her mother intently as she moved, “What's all this?”

“It's for the tribal art display,” Joyce replied while she continued to struggle with the crate.

“Cool,” Buffy moved to examine one of the wooden statuettes that her mother had already unpacked, it was definitely tribal, whether it was art was open to debate. “We had try-outs today,” Buffy announced trying to engage her mother in conversation; their relationship had been put under strain recently by the divorce and the moving and the vampires, Buffy was doing her best to reconnect.

“Oh great,” Joyce replied absently, “How'd you do?”

“I didn't actually try out,” Buffy explained, “there was an accident...fierce competition though.”

“I know you'll do fine,” Joyce tried slipping the end of the crowbar further under the lid of the crate, perhaps that would give her more leverage. “Keep on plugging,” Joyce turned her head to smile at her daughter, “you just have to get back on the horse...”

“Mom?”

“Yes sweetheart?” Joyce pushed down on the crowbar and felt the lid start to move, 'at last!' she thought.

“What was I trying out for?” Buffy picked some grapes out of a fruit bowl and ate one.

“Oh...erm...” Joyce stopped struggling with the crate and turned to face Buffy with a frown on her face, “...some activity?” Joyce shook her head and looked apologetically at Buffy, “I have no idea...I'm sorry.”

“That's okay,” despite her words Buffy couldn't help feeling just a little let down my her mother's lack of interest, “Your platitudes are good for all occasions.”

“I'm sorry Buffy,” Joyce repeated, “I'm distracted, I've got a lot of work to do, it's my gallery's first major exhibition,” Joyce went back to trying to open the crate while Buffy carried on eating grapes. “You know,” Joyce gave up on the crate, “it might not kill you if you gave me a hand here.”

Walking over to another crate and checking the invoice on the clipboard that lay there, Joyce didn't notice Buffy rip the lid from the original crate single handed.

“It was cheerleading,” Buffy informed her mother as she turned away from the now opened crate to get some more grapes.

“Oh good,” Joyce looked up from her invoice for a moment, “I'm glad you're taking that up again it'll keep you out of trouble.”

“I'm not in trouble,” Buffy replied with a heavy teen sigh.

“No, not yet...” Joyce continued not noticing the hurt look on Buffy's face and the silence that had suddenly descended on the room like a heavy, wet blanket; Joyce looked at Buffy again. “I mean, you stopped cheerleading just before all the trouble, so it's good your going back to it.”

Reaching into the crate that Buffy had just opened, Joyce lifted up the statue it contained and looked at it closely for a moment or two, “Oh dear....”

“What?” Buffy asked as she watched her mother hurriedly replace the statue back into its box and put back the lid.

“Fertility statue,” Joyce explained slightly embarrassed by the size of statue's appendage, “you don't need to see it.”

“You know,” Buffy asked hesitantly, “a lot of the girls practice with there moms.”

“Uh-huh,” Joyce nodded as she continued to check items off on her list, “Sounds to me as if some moms haven't got a lot to do...like earn a living.”

Watching as her mother walked into the dinning room, Buffy rolled her eyes, obviously her mother was too pre-occupied to pick up on what she was hinting. Trying to think charitable thoughts about her mother, Buffy lifted the lid of the crate and looked in at the fertility statue.

“Jeepers!” Buffy said in alarm as she saw the size of the statue's extreme extremity, she slammed the lid shut and walked away fanning her face with her hands as she did so.

0=0=0=0

Half a galaxy away, vast computers that had remained dormant for uncounted eons slowly came to life as they processed the information from a probe that had long been thought lost. Normally new stock would be taken from nearby planets or spacecraft that passed close to Triskelion. However, the stock that now performed for the Provider's entertainment wasn't of the same quality that it had once been. New blood was needed to keep Providers entertained. As more banks of computers came to life the cold, analytical, machine-entity that was the heart of Triskelion considered its options.

The information it was receiving from this ancient probe was most intriguing, the subject was young, strong and female. Not only would she perform well in the arena she could also be used to breed a new line of stock that would entertain the Providers for many more hundreds of years to come. If the subject proved successful there was no reason why more of her kind couldn't be taken from this far away planet. Yes the target world was many hundreds of light-years away from the computer's home planet, but Triskelion's transporter technology was capable of taking subjects from distances far in excess of the distance to this primitive world. All the computer needed was power and it had the resources of an entire planet to acquire that power.

Of course it would take some time to charge the capacitors to the level required, but for a machine that dealt in centuries the passing of a few hours or days were as nothing. First it would need more information on the prospective target, then it would need accurate targeting data. It would also need to know everything about the target's physical requirements, its limitations and its abilities. Once it was sure that the target would thrive in with the biosphere of Triskelion it would inform the Providers that it had a new plaything for them.

0=0=0=0

Receiving new orders that flashed to it almost instantly across the vastness of space, the probe started to scan its surroundings. Drawing more power from the very planet it had landed on all those many hundreds of years ago, the probe increased the power and range of its scans concentrating its computerised mind on the young female whose presence had woken it from its long centuries of electronic slumber.

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter Two.

2.

**Sunnydale High School Gym, Tuesday Lunch Time.**

“...and then he jumped on top of me and...” Buffy leaned towards Willow and whispered some of the more intimate details of the dream she'd had about the Africa fertility god the previous night.

“Wow!” Willow gasped as she turned slightly pink, “I mean, that sounds totally intense.”

“Yeah it totally was,” Buffy replied with a grin.

“Are you sure it wasn't one of those slayer dream things?” Willow asked sounding a little concerned and hopeful at the same time, “Maybe its a prophecy and it'll all come true.”

“Nah,” Buffy shook her head sadly, “my slayer dreams are never that much fun.”

“Oh,” Willow looked gloomily at the floor of the gym, “I wish I had dreams like that...”

“Why?” Buffy frowned at her friend, “I mean, what do you dream about, Will?”

“Oh,” Willow sighed and cast a lovesick glance towards where Xander was sitting on the opposite side of Buffy from her, “and its never really that satisfying, y'know?”

“Poor Willow,” Buffy gave Willow's hand a quick squeeze, “don't worry maybe one day you'll get a totally...”

Willow never found out what Buffy wished for her because the head cheerleader called out for people to give her some attention. Once the girl had everyone looking at her, she explained that even after the tragic events of yesterday they still had to find new cheerleaders, so, the try-outs were going to continue. Today they were going to forget about individual performance and go straight onto group performance. Calling out names from a list on her clipboard, the head cheerleader organised the first group.

“Wish me luck,” Buffy said as her name was called out and she grabbed her pompoms before getting up to join the first group of girls.

“Good luck,” Willow called; as she watched her friend trot briskly across the gym, Willow found she couldn't help admiring the sway of Buffy's hips or her shapely legs.

“Yeah good luck Buff!” Xander cried just a little too eagerly.

“Hey, Xander,” Willow said quietly as she shifted herself along the bench so she was sitting next to her old friend, “have you asked Buffy out on a date yet?”

“Erm,” Xander suddenly found his feet very interesting, “not so much...in fact not at all. Every time I try, something happens and the moment's lost.”

“Oh,” Willow nodded her head sagely, “good,” she added too quietly for Xander to hear.

“What was that?” Xander asked just as the prospective cheerleaders lined up to start their routine.

“Oh nothing,” Willow replied innocently, “lets watch Buffy.”

“Yeeeeah,” Xander smiled as he settled down to watch the show.

Giving Xander a last look out of the corner of her eye, Willow sat back to watch the girls dance. The music started and the six girls in the first batch of would-be cheerleaders started a simple but energetic routine. Feeling slightly let down by life, Willow began to wonder when she'd start to get something more than erotic dreams. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Xander wasn't interested in her in a romantic way, so maybe she should look elsewhere for romance and...well, not to put too fine a point on it, smooches.

Looking along the line of dancers, Willow's eyes lingered on Buffy as she danced energetically and waved her pompoms about. Performing a series of high kicks Buffy gave Willow (and everyone else) a good view of her red cheerleader's panties. Next Willow found herself watching Cordelia. While Buffy was good and certainly full of enthusiasm, technically Cordelia was a much better dancer. Willow remembered that Cordy had been a cheerleader in Junior High, while Buffy had had to give up her junior high cheerleading because of her slaying duties. Sadly, for Willow and Xander, the routine was coming to a close. As the girls went into their last pose, Amy the girl next to Cordelia stumbled and trod on Cordy's foot. Both girls tumbled to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

“Hey!” Willow cried out, “did you see that?” She grabbed hold of Xander's arm and shook it forcing him to tear his eyes away from Buffy and look where Willow was pointing, “Amy just knocked Cordy over.”

“Yeah cool!” Xander sniggered just before Willow punched him, “OW! Hey what was that for?” he demanded truly puzzled by Willow's actions.

“Laughing at Cordy,” Willow replied fiercely.

“What!?” Xander looked at Willow as if she'd turned bright green, in fact he'd have been less surprised if she had turned bright green.

“Well...” Willow struggled with her feelings for a moment, “...that was so unfair and Cordy was dancing really well and...”

“But you hate Cordelia,” Xander pointed out as he wondered what was wrong with Willow, perhaps she had a fever or something?

“I...I...” Willow didn't know what to say, she'd hated Cordelia all through Junior High; she'd hated her with a vengeance.

The dark haired girl had picked on her all through junior high, it was only since Willow had been friends with Buffy that the teasing and cutting remarks had begun to let up. But now...now, Willow was finding herself having all these feelings that she didn't quite understand, towards Cordelia and Buffy. The need to explain herself to Xander was put off, at least for a while, by the arrival of Buffy who walked over to them with a big grin on her face.

“That was fun!” Buffy smiled, “Not just the dancing but Cordelia falling over at the end...”

“Hey!” Xander warned as he stood up to pass Buffy a towel, “Don't say anything mean about Cordelia in front of Willow.”

“W-what?” Buffy couldn't quite believe what she was hearing.

“Xander!” Willow punched his arm again, “Shut up!”

“Hey stop that!” Xander rubbed the spot where Willow had hit him.

“What's going on?” Buffy demanded as she wiped her face with the towel.

“Willow's in luuuuv,” Xander teased, “with Cordy no less!”

“What!?” Buffy spluttered, “Who?” she turned to stare at Willow, “But you hate Cordelia.”

“I know,” Willow replied miserably, “but just lately...not so much, y'know?”

“Jeez Will!” Buffy looked from Willow to Xander and back again, “the sooner we find you a boyfriend the better,” Buffy turned and glared at Xander, “this is all your fault, y'know?”

“What!?” Xander stood aghast, “What did I do?”

“Look,” Buffy turned towards the girl's locker room, “we'll deal with this later, I'm going to have a shower.”

0=0=0=0

Standing outside the girl's locker room, Cordelia looked up and down the corridor. Good, she thought, no teachers in sight and only a few pupils around, it wouldn't do to be seen sneaking back into the locker room. As far as she could tell the only person left in the locker room was that clumsy bitch, Amy Madison. Even super-freak, Buffy Summers and all her loser friends were nowhere to be seen. The coast was clear; walking over to the door, Cordy checked the corridor one last time before pushing the door open and walking in. Picking her way between the discarded towels that littered the floor, Cordy walked up and down the rows of lockers until she came to the end of one particular row. Looking cautiously around the corner, she could see that big klutz, Amy Madison who was just finishing drying her hair. Moving quickly and quietly towards the unsuspecting girl, Cordelia moved in for the kill!

Turning, Amy came face to face with Cordelia who'd somehow managed to sneak right up behind her without her noticing, she took a sharp intake of breath as Cordy stepped up close to her and got in her face.

“I have a dream,” Cordelia announced with deceptive calm, “It's me on the cheerleading squad, adored by every varsity male for as far as the eye can see.” Cordy smiled, but not in a nice way, “We have to achieve our dreams, Amy, otherwise we...wither and _die_!”

“Look I'm sorry about...” Amy began to apologise but Cordy didn't give her a chance to say more than these few words.

“Shh!” Cordy ordered and pointed her finger as if she was going to ram it up Amy's nose, “If your supreme klutziness out there today takes me out of the running...” Cordelia paused to add menace to what she was about to say, “...you're gonna be _so very_ beyond sorry.” pausing once more, Cordy smiled insincerely, “Have a nice day!”

Well pleased with her piece of psychological bullying, Cordelia turned and walked out of the locker room leaving what she thought was a suitably intimidated Amy Madison behind her.

“Not as sorry as you'll be,” Amy said as she made a mystical gesture with her right hand and muttered some words under her breath.

There was a sound like little fairy bells ringing and out in the corridor, Cordelia stumbled against the wall.

“Wow,” Cordelia said as her hand went to her forehead; she could feel a really bad headache coming on, “maybe I should go get some Aspirin or something.”

Walking erratically down the hallway, Cordy headed off in the direction of the nurse's office.

Back in the locker room, Amy smiled as she placed her gym shoes back into her locker. That would teach Cordelia Chase not to mess with her. Like a lot of girls who'd been to Junior High with Cordelia, Amy had been picked on by the rich girl and her little posse of rich-bitches. The bullying could be for anything; not wearing the right clothes or of for wearing the same colour nail polish as Cordy. Most girls had dealt with this by either forming their own groups so Cordy and her friends couldn't pick on them without fear of there being payback, or by simply avoiding Cordelia and her friends.

Amy had had a different solution to the problem that was Cordelia Chase. Amy had taught herself witchcraft. At first it had started out as a joke, but very soon Amy found she could cause things to happen, to change things to the way that suited her. Not being a 'bad' person Amy had soon realised that she could do almost anything she wanted (given the time to practice) but that would be most definitely bad. So, she decided to only use her powers in emergencies or for self-defence. The hex she'd put on Cordelia was only a mild confusion spell; the girl would get a headache and be afflicted by a bout of 'supreme klutziness' then it would wear off in an hour or two. Hopefully then Cordelia would back off and Amy wouldn't have to resort to anything more vicious...although the idea of Cordy with a real bad outbreak of zits on her butt made Amy smile.

0=0=0=0

After taking the Aspirin the nurse had given her, Cordy had felt slightly better for about ten minutes, before the headache came back bringing a few of its friends along to join the party. Standing at a locker that she wasn't one-hundred percent sure was hers, Cordy tried to open the door. Either it wasn't her locker or she'd forgotten her combination, she didn't know which. Eventually, Cordy gave up and headed on down the corridor; she knew she needed to be outside for Driver's Ed soon. In her confused state she never noticed Buffy following her or indeed much of anything else.

Outside, Mr Pole the Driver's Ed instructor sat on the hood of the Driver's Ed car and looked at his watch impatiently, he was waiting for his last pupil to arrive; anyone would think that Cordelia didn't want to learn to drive the way she dragged her feet. Turning at the sound of footsteps on the tarmac, he saw Cordelia walking slowly towards him.

“Nice of you to join us Cordelia,” Mr Pole said with heavy sarcasm, “We didn't keep you waiting or anything, did we?” He walked around to the passenger's door, “It's your turn to drive,” Pole next spoke to the other two students who'd been waiting with him, “get in and buckle up people.”

“I don't wanna drive today, Mr Pole,” to tell the truth Cordy didn't feel like doing much of anything other than maybe going to bed.

“You've flunked Driver's Ed twice,” Pole snapped angrily, “Show me some moves or you'll be taking the bus to college.

Feeling totally disorientated, Cordy somehow managed to open the driver's door and climb into the car. After a moment's pause she managed to remember to buckle up her seat belt, it seemed to her that every time she tried to concentrate on something her headache got worse, perhaps if she tried not to concentrate so hard her head wouldn't hurt so much.

0=0=0=0

Coming out from behind one of the school buses, Buffy watched as Cordy climbed into the Driver's Ed car. She'd been following Cordelia for the last five or ten minutes and she had to admit that even for Cordelia the dark haired girl had been acting more than a little oddly. It was like she was drunk or something, an explanation that Buffy dismissed almost as soon as she'd thought of it. Stepping back into cover behind the bus, Buffy watched to see what would happen next.

0=0=0=0

“Okay, check the brake,” Mr Pole said in a bored voice; when Cordy didn't appear to be listening he added, “Check the mirror?” Again it seemed to him that Cordy wasn't all there today, perhaps he shouldn't let her drive after all; there definitely did seem to be something wrong with the girl, “Start the engine,” still Cordy didn't move, “Hello?” Mr Pole said with increasing concern, “Try putting the car in drive.”

This Cordelia managed to do without too much trouble, maybe she'd be alright after all.

“Alright,” Mr Pole continued, “let's move forward through the cones with a gentle even turn to the...”

Cordelia screamed as the car shot off backwards knocking over two road signs and several cones before she managed to bring the vehicle to a halt. Slamming on the brakes Cordelia struggled with the gear shift.

“OOOoooooOH!” Cordy cried out as the car shot forward at high speed and she tried desperately to control the wildly swerving vehicle.

“Slow down!” Mr Pole cried uselessly as the car careered across the parking lot, “Slow...slow!” he grabbed hold of the dashboard as the car served towards a line of parked cars, “Turn right! Turn right!” he ordered desperately.

“AAAAGH!” Screamed Cordelia as the car seemed to take on a life of its own, hearing Mr Pole's frantic instruction to turn right, Cordelia obeyed only to send the car hurtling towards the back of a bus.

“BRAKES!!!” Mr Pole screamed as the car narrowly missed hitting the bus.

Turning the steering wheel erratically, Cordy managed to avoid smashing into the rear end of the bus. Now, however, the car was heading at high speed for the school's perimeter fence. There seemed to be nothing Cordelia could do to stop the crash. Her hands locked on the steering wheel as the car sped inexorable towards the fence. Unable to do anything else, Cordy screamed!

0=0=0=0

Coming out from behind the bus, Buffy watched in horror as Cordy's car zigzagged unpredictably across the tarmac before heading towards the fence. Running after the car she never noticed the bee sized tracking device that had been following her all day. Coming to a halt she watched helplessly as Cordy's car smashed its way through the fence and the hedge that surrounded the school before stopping on the road just missing a passing car.

Setting off after the car Buffy ran to help as the tiny tracker picked up speed to follow her. Back at Revelo Drive the African fertility god's eyes glowed redly as it received instructions passed to it from the computers back on Triskelion. It forwarded its own instructions to the tracker, any moment know the Providers would have a new Thrall.

Running through the hole in the fence, Buffy saw Mr Pole get the other students out of the car and yell at them to get off the road. While this was going on, Cordelia staggered drunkenly out into the middle of the road. Turning her head, Buffy saw a large van heading towards Cordy, the driver appeared to be looking at his delivery schedule and not at the road so he didn't see Cordy standing confused right in the path of his van.

Sprinting towards where Cordy stood, Buffy leaped on to the hood of the crashed car and used it as a spring board to help her jump to where Cordy stood. Landing next to the girl, Buffy wrapped her arms around her and knocked her to the ground. Rolling out of the path of the speeding van, Buffy congratulated herself that she'd once again managed to avert disaster. As the two girls lay on the hard road still wrapped in each others arms, the bee-like creature settled on Buffy's hand and half a second later both girls vanished.

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**Triskelion.**

The very first thing Buffy noticed that was wrong was that she wasn't lying on the road outside of school anymore. The next thing she noticed was that she was lying on some sort of smooth, hard, blue-grey material. Feeling Cordelia move under her, Buffy put off her examination of the world until after she'd checked that Cordy was all right.

“Are you okay, Cordelia?” Buffy asked as she rolled off the girl and sat on the ground taking in her surroundings

“Get offa me you total freak,” Cordelia began as she pushed Buffy away, sitting up Cordy started to register that everything wasn't as it should be, “What the hell?”

“So you're not hurt then?” Buffy got to her feet.

“No...” Cordy climbed to her feet and stood next to Buffy, before demanding,“...where the hell are we?”

“Don't know,” Buffy admitted.

From her five-foot-two vantage point, Buffy could now see that she was standing on a blue-grey triangular...she didn't know what to call it but the closest she could come to anything she'd seen before was some sort of sports court. There was a yellow three 'legged' pattern that started in the middle of the 'court' and stretched out to the corners of the triangle. The court itself was surrounded on three sides by a rock cliff that went up forty or fifty feet, however, it didn't look as if it would be too difficult to climb.

Ignoring Cordelia's rant about why they didn't seem to be in Sunnydale any more and how her father would sue everyone responsible for that fact, Buffy continued her examination of her surroundings. As she'd noted the court was surround on three sides by a cliff face, the forth side was much more interesting. Walking over to the twelve foot high iron railings that blocked off the forth side, Buffy smiled; she could easily jump over the railings and leave Cordy behind. This was an option that was increasingly becoming more and more attractive as Cordy's complaining was starting to grate. The only other things near by of any interest were the three stone benches that were placed one on each side of the triangular court.

Looking right and left, Buffy now noticed what looked like passages between the rock face and the railings, these, she thought, might lead to some back area so there might not be any need to climb up or jump over anything. However, she was still seriously considering leaving Cordelia behind. Standing by the iron railings Buffy let Cordelia's monologue come back to the fore front of her consciousness (it had become a vague droning in the background) you never know, Buffy told herself, she might be saying something interesting.

“...this is all your fault!” Cordelia said accusingly, “This is all something to do with your freaky, loser life and all your freaky, loser friends and that spooky librarian you all hang out with...and don't think people haven't noticed how much time you all spend in the library...I'm going to get my father to tell the school board about what you get up to in...”

“Cordelia...” Buffy had noticed movement down the passage to her right, she started to back towards the centre of the court, “...shut up!”

“What!?” Cordelia turned her astonished face towards Buffy, no one (apart from maybe her mom) ever told her to 'shut-up', particularly not short, blonde, freaks like Buffy Summers. “Hey! Don't you talk to me like that, I...” something caught Cordy's eye which made her stop talking, instead she let out a small, strangled scream of surprise with a big lump of terror thrown in for good measure.

Buffy had already seen what had made Cordelia scream and more importantly shut up. The 'guy', monster, whatever, had to be at least seven feet tall. He was bare chested and wore an animal skin of some kind secured around his waist by a wide leather belt, on his feet he wore matching fur boots. He also appeared to only have one eye which was set right in the middle of his face where a normal person would have two eyes. There also seemed to be something wrong with his teeth as they looked more like tusks.

“Okay,” Buffy backed away from the Cyclops slowly, “need a better dental plan, much?”

The surprise at coming face to face with a real life Cyclops almost made Buffy miss the dagger the creature held in its left hand.

“Cordy,” Buffy glanced over her shoulder to see Cordelia staring in terror at the Cyclops, “stay behind me.”

“Okay...” Cordy replied in a small frightened voice.

Looking back at the Cyclops who was just standing at the edge of the court as if waiting for something, Buffy was in time to see two more figures walk onto the court. These new arrivals looked much more normal. One was a guy who Buffy might have thought of as 'cute' had it not been for the knife he held and waved in Buffy direction. The second was a blonde woman who apart from having a dagger like everyone else wore what looked like a _very_ figure hugging, silver, one-piece swimming costume held together with _way_ too many straps and buckles; she also wore matching silver boots.

“Very sixties,” Buffy told herself, before adding quietly, “very bondage beachwear.”

“Buffy,” Cordelia cried having forgotten that she'd been calling Buffy a freak only seconds before, “what's happening? Like you can fight these....these... _things_ , can't you?”

“Freaks?” Buffy supplied helpfully and not without a little irony.

“Yeah all right,” Cordelia sounded a little more like her normal self, that is conceited, arrogant and bossy, “I'm sorry for calling you a freak but I still think this is somehow all your fault.”

“Whatever,” Buffy sighed just before a loud buzzer sounded and the three miss matched fighters started to move in so as to surround Buffy and Cordelia.

Trying to keep all three opponents in view became more difficult as they spread out. Buffy decided that the best defence was a spirited offence and guessing that the Cyclops was probably the toughest opponent, she decided to take him down first. In this fight she wouldn't be playing like she sometimes did with the vamps she fought against...after all a slayer had to hone her skills and fighting a real vamp was about the best workout you could get. But not today, today she'd need to kill or disable the three stooges in double quick time.

Launching herself at the Cyclops, Buffy was glad to see that he reacted slowly. A side kick directed at his knee connected and brought the monster down to her level. However, just as she was bringing back her fist to punch the Cyclops in the temple, shatter his skull and kill him, Buffy sensed someone coming up behind her. Spinning on one foot she turned her punch into a chop and slashed her hand across 'cute' guy's throat. Unlike the Cyclops, 'cute-guy' had faster reactions and jerked his head back quickly, but not fast enough to save him completely from Buffy's attack. 

Catching 'cute-guy' across the throat she saw him fall to the ground, he wasn't dead like she'd hoped, but he'd be out of action for long enough for her to finish off Cyclops. Just as she was about to turn back to her first opponent Buffy felt big muscular arms wrap themselves around her and start to squeeze. The Cyclops might be slow but it appeared he recovered quickly. Feeling herself being lifted off her feet, Buffy jerked back with her head to hit Cyclops in the face hard enough to make him let her go.

Landing back on her own feet again, Buffy kept going down until she was crouching at the Cyclop's feet. Sweeping her leg around in a wide arc she knocked the creature off his feet and saw him crash to the ground. Springing upright again she aimed a side kick at his head. The kick connected and the monster's head snapped back. There was the familiar, dry-branch-breaking sound of a neck snapping and the Cyclops was dead.

Turning quickly, Buffy saw that 'cute-homicidal-guy' was still down and out, but silver-bondage-beach-wear-woman had got Cordy in a strangle hold and was squeezing the life out of the cheerleader. Kicking the guy as she passed to go to Cordy's aid, Buffy felt no need to fight fair. Punching the silver clad woman in the boob, she watched as a look of pain and surprise spread across her face. Letting go of Cordy the woman staggered backwards, doubled over in pain as she clutched at her breast. Stepping forward, Buffy pushed Cordelia out of the way and hit the woman hard on the side of the head with the palm of her hand. The woman slumped to the floor, out for the count.

“Cordy,” Buffy held out her hand to Cordelia, “come-on, unless you're having fun here I think its time to go!”

Dragging Cordelia across the court, which Buffy was starting to think was more like an arena, she was brought up short by the sudden appearance of a tall, bald man with bad skin, he was also unfashionably dressed in a long black cloak with a high red colour.

“HOLD!” the man commanded his eyes glowing with a bright, white, light as he spoke.

“Neat trick,” Buffy quipped as she and Cordy slid to a halt, “but I'm late for class, y'know?”

Buffy tried to dodge around the guy but was once again stopped in her escape attempts by a cry from Cordelia.

“Buffy!” Cordelia said in the same tone of voice people used to warn someone that they'd tucked their skirt into their panties or something.

“What?” Buffy turned to look at Cordelia who was pointing frantically in the direction of the railings.

“F'Christ's sake Buffy,” Cordy snapped, “LOOK!”

Turning to look past the guy in the cloak, Buffy saw several more Cyclops and warrior women come from the passage ways and line up along the railings. They were all armed with odd looking spears and other sharp, pointy things that Buffy didn't know the names of; she didn't think that even she could fight them all at the same time.

“Gulp,” Buffy said quietly as she let go of Cordy's hand. 

“Excellent, Buffy Summers,” the man in the cloak said in the sort of echoing voice that you only heard on old sci-fi shows; he took a step towards Buffy and Cordelia. “Although we expected strength and competitive spirit we are greatly pleased...”

“Hey, that's totally nice of you to say,” Buffy smiled, “but me and my, for want of a better word, friend, really need to be going now. Like I say, we're late for class...unless you want for me to beat on all your girls,” Buffy's eyes shifted to the line of warriors, “and monsters?”

“Admirable, Buffy Summers, admirable,” cloak guy echoed, “you also Cordelia Chase fought bravely even if you are not as strong or as skilled as Buffy Summers.”

“Yeah okay,” Cordelia stepped up to cloak-guy, “how much?

“How much?” Cloak-guy frowned, “I do not understand.”

“How much do you want to let us go,” Cordy crossed her arms under her breasts and looked belligerently down her elegant nose at cloak-guy.

“No you miss understand, Cordelia Chase,” cloak guy looked from Buffy to Cordy and back again, “I can see you will both prove invaluable here...I am Golt, Master Thrall of the Planet Triskelion...I have been sent to welcome you to your new home.”

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale.**

Bursting, breathlessly into the library, Xander paused in the doorway for a moment. Looking around he quickly acquired Giles who was doing librariany type things behind his counter.

“Giles!” Xander gasped as he rushed over to stand on the other side of the counter from Giles, “Have you heard?”

“Heard what?” Giles looked up from where he was stamping dates on books.

“Buffy!?” Xander exclaimed not making very much sense.

“Buffy?” Giles paused in his stamping and gave Xander a puzzled look, “I repeat, heard what?”

“Buffy!” Xander tried again still not making any sense.

“I'm guessing this is something to do with Buffy?” Giles asked dryly, “Now why don't you take a deep breath and tell me slowly and concisely 'what' about Buffy?”

Doing as he'd been told, Xander took a deep breath.

“Buffy's vanished,” Xander said after a moments more thought.

“Vanished?” Giles looked at Xander closely and decided the youth certainly looked worried, “What do you mean 'vanish'?” Giles wanted to know, “I'm afraid you'll have to give me more than that, do you mean she's gone home or...”

“No!” Xander tried to explain, “She's vanished as in 'poof' vanished and Cordelia.”

“They've vanished together?” again Giles frowned, he'd not thought that Buffy and Cordelia were that close...which reminded him; Cordelia Chase owed a lot of overdue book fines.

“Yes...no...I mean....” Xander closed his mouth with a snap, drew in another deep breath and started to describe what several people had witnessed.

“So you're saying that this Cordelia girl crashed a car,” Giles spoke slowly as he tried to get the chain of events right in his head, “then Buffy stopped her from being run over by a van...and then they both vanished?”

Xander nodded his head.

“You don't think Buffy took this Cordelia girl to hospital do you?” Giles asked just to clarify a point or two and not to jump to any unwarranted conclusions.

This time Xander shook his head.

“I see,” Giles considered the problem for a moment, “are you suggesting that something underhand or un-natural has happened, that someone spirited both Buffy and Cordelia away somehow?”

“Underhand? Spirited?” Xander queried, “No, I'm suggesting that something evil's got its slime dripping claws on Buffy...and Cordelia, but to be honest I'm really only worried about Buffy here, and taken her away to have its sick, evil and perverted jollies with her!”

“I see,” Giles replied with infuriating calmness; just then Willow burst in through the library doors.

“Giles! Xander!” she cried breathlessly as she skidded to a halt, “Have you heard about what happened to Buffy and Cordelia?”

“Yes,” Giles and Xander chorused.

“Oh shoot,” Willow's shoulders fell as she looked miserably at the counter top, once again she wasn't the one to bring in the really important news; she remembered something and brightened a little, “Ah! But have you heard that Principal Flutie has called the police and they can't find them either.”

“No,” Giles admitted, “but I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation.”

“Reasonable explanation?” Willow cried aghast.

“In Sunnydale?” Xander pointed out helpfully.

“Erm yes,” Giles removed his spectacles and gave them a quick polish, “perhaps you're right,” putting his glasses back one he added, “show me where all this happened.”

0=0=0=0

By the time Giles, Willow and Xander got to the scene of the crash, the car had been towed away and the street swept clean of glass and pieces of hedge. However there was still a hole in the hedge and tire marks on the road to show where the accident had taken place.

“You're sure this is the spot?” Giles asked as he walked out into the road studying the tarmac as he went.

“Careful Giles!” Willow grabbed hold of Giles' arm to prevent him from walking in front of a passing car.

As Willow pulled him back from almost certain death or serious injury, something made a distinct 'crunching' sound under his foot.

“I say what was that?” Giles knelt down to look at what he'd just stepped on; he picked up something that looked like a large fly or possibly a bee...something he might have called a 'blue-bottle' in England, who knew what Americans called it, he certainly didn't. “What have we got here?”

“What's that you found?” Willow asked as she joined Giles in studying the insect.

“I'm not sure,” Giles replied quietly, “but does that look like metal to you Willow?”

“Yeah...” Willow looked at the little creature closely, unlike most insects this one appeared to be made out of metal and plastic.

“Have you found a clue?” Xander asked hopefully.

“I don't know if its a clue,” Giles explained, “but its jolly odd.”

“Wait up!” Willow started to search through the bag that hung from her shoulder; within moments she'd produced an empty, plastic, sandwich bag, “put it in here Giles I'll look at it under the microscope in biology this afternoon.”

“Yes, jolly good idea,” Giles stood up right, “look you better run along to class. Keep your eyes and ears open in case someone says anything useful.”

“What will you be doing Giles?” Willow asked as she put the insect and its plastic bag safely into her bag.

“Oh, this and that,” Giles replied mysteriously, “this and that.”

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**Sunnydale.**

It was well past the end of the school day, but Sunnydale High's library was still occupied. Giles stood at the head of the research table and looked down at his two charges as they looked up at him hoping for some good news.

“I'm sorry to say,” Giles began gravely, “that the police have found no trace of Buffy or this other girl.” He took a deep breath before continuing, “On the plus side their bodies haven't turned up in any morgues, police stations, hospital emergency rooms or doctor's offices. Neither Buffy or this other girl...”

“Cordelia,” Willow prompted helpfully.

“Or this Cordelia girl has been home since the accident, but neither have they been spotted at the bus or train stations,” Giles removed his glasses but didn't polish them, he just stood with them in his hand as he stared unseeingly at the table, “until we know differently we must assume they are both still in Sunnydale. As you know the police have been around to question the staff...”

“Yeah,” Xander replied soberly, “they asked Willow and me a few questions too.”

“Gotta say, Giles,” Willow added, “they didn't seem to...y'know...be that interested,” Willow shrugged, Sunnydale PD wasn't known for being one of the best PD's in the country, “Like they were suggesting that Buffy and Cordelia had totally run off with some boys or something.”

“That doesn't make any sense,” Giles agreed as he put his glasses back on, “I spoke to Mr Pole the Driver's Ed instructor; he said that although he was getting the other students out of the car he distinctly remembers seeing Buffy helping Cordelia. Then the next time he looked, which he claims was only a few seconds later they'd both vanished...”

“What's up Giles?” Xander asked when Giles' voice just faded away.

“Vanished...” Giles replied vaguely, this time when he took off his glasses he polished them vigorously.

“He's thinking,” Willow whispered to Xander, “you can always tell.”

“Yeah I get that,” Xander agreed with a nod; he'd never known anyone who could think quite as deeply as Giles could about a single subject.

“In the last forty-eight hours we've had two unexplained occurrences on or near school grounds,” Giles said slowly as he slipped his glasses back on, “First we had that Amber girl's hands burst into flames and then we had Buffy and Cordelia simply vanish...” Giles looked into Willow's and Xander's expectant faces, “I think its not too big a leap of faith to say that the two occurrences are connected,” Giles concentrated his stare on Willow, “Willow, what did you find out about Amber from the school computer?”

“Erm...” Willow hesitated for a moment before she got out her notebook from her bag and started to read the notes she'd made, “...okay, Amber's a solid 'B' student and she was a cheerleader at her last school. I also found some disciplinary notes; she got detention for smoking,” Willow paused to look up at Giles for a second, “that's cigarettes not...” seeing the look on Giles' face Willow decided she didn't need to explain any further, “...other than that she's clean.”

“Hmmm,” Giles said before turning to Xander, “you were going to talk to her friends?”

“Yeah,” Xander shifted in his chair and leant forward over the table, “the people who like her weren't much help,” he shrugged, “they were all with the 'Amber's so nice' and 'why would anyone do that to Amber?' That kinda thing,” Xander paused for dramatic effect, “However, when I talked to people who didn't like her so much, weeell I saw a whole new and interesting side to her...”

“Please Xander,” Giles said tiredly, “time may well be a factor here.”

“Okay I'll get to the point,” Xander sighed slightly annoyed that his time centre stage was going to be cut short, “To put it in a nut shell, Amber is a bully, particularly if she sees someone getting between her and her dream of becoming a professional cheerleader.”

“Professional cheerleader?” Giles asked totally mystified, “There are such things?”

“Yes!” Willow said quickly so no one would get distracted by a discussion on the merits or otherwise of professional cheerleading, “Go on Xander.”

“Yeah, right,” slightly disappointed that he couldn't put Giles right about the existence of professional cheerleaders, Xander continued with his report on Amber, “I've heard half a dozen stories of girls being bullied, one even had to be sent to the ER after Amber had a little 'talk' to her. But like most bullies Amber's good a covering her tracks so nothings has ever been proved against her.”

“Any girl or girls in particular?” Giles asked hopefully, “this girl who ended up in hospital for instance?”

“Sorry, G-man,” Xander shook his head, “her family moved away from Sunnydale she's long gone.”

“Anyone one else?” Giles asked before adding, “Oh, and Xander never, ever, call be 'G-man' again...please?”

“There was a girl in Junior High, Amy Madison,” Xander smiled, “she had a 'disagreement' with Amber, but Amber backed off like Amy was tougher than she was.”

“Hmm,” Giles nodded, “bullies often back down when confronted by people who aren't afraid of them, either of you know this Madison girl?”

“Oh yeah,” Willow smiled, “Amy's sweet I used to hang out with her back in Junior High, she was kinda 'big' then but she's lost a lot of weight since...” a memory stirred in Willow's mind, “...in fact she's been taking part in the try-outs.” Willow smiled again, she liked Amy, “She's gained a lot of confidence since she lost all that weight.”

“How much weight?” Giles asked.

“Oh, _a lot_ ,” Willow giggled, “like, she was like totally _huge_!”

“Hmm,” Giles said again.

“Hmmm?” Willow hinted wondering why Giles was saying 'Hmm' all the time, “You've thought of something haven't you Giles?” Willow gave Giles a worried look, “Come on Giles spill, Buffy's our friend too.”

“What I'm thinking may have something to do with what your going to tell me next, Willow,” Giles looked directly into Willow's eyes.

“It is?” Willow asked nervously.

“Yes,” Giles confirmed, “now, I know you've had a lot on your mind, but did you get a chance to look at that insect creature we found on the road.”

“Oh! Yeah, that,” Willow exclaimed, “Yes I did...”

“And?” Giles prompted when it seemed that Willow wasn't going to add anything.

“I had a look at it under one of the school microscopes,” Willow began, “Now the microscopes we have here aren't all that powerful, but...”

“Please don't leave us in suspense, Willow,” Giles sighed.

“...but,” Willow cast Giles a dirty look for interrupting her, “they are powerful enough to see that that fly, or whatever you want to call it, isn't natural.”

“Not natural?” Xander said fishing for an explanation.

“Not natural,” Willow repeated, “unless your idea of natural is to be made out of plastic and metal and a couple of things I'm not sure of!!!”

“Would you say this insect was a product of human science?” Giles asked slowly.

“I'm no expert,” Willow admitted, “but unless someone's being doing some _really_ serious research over the last few years; I'd say that thing is way beyond anything we have now or even will have in twenty years time!”

0=0=0=0

**Triskelion.**

It had taken four of the Cyclops warriors to place Buffy's wrists and ankles in the manacles that were set into the wall of the underground complex where she and Cordelia had been taken. Even so Buffy had managed to disable two Cyclops before she'd been overwhelmed by force of numbers. Cordelia had fought valiantly as well, she'd kicked, scratched, punched and even bitten the two female warriors in silver swimming costumes that had been detailed to chain her to the wall. 

Once they'd been secured a couple of female warriors had placed metal collars around their necks; Cordelia had managed to twist her head so she could bite the hand of the woman who put the collar on her. The woman yelped with pain and surprise before slapping Cordelia so hard across the face that Cordy cut her lip on one of her teeth. Wisely Buffy decided not to resist, she guessed that if she struggled she'd be hit by one of the Cyclops' and they would do more damage to her than a cut lip. Instead Buffy tried to get a look at the collar as it was put around her neck.

The collar was silver (again with the disco bling, she thought), it was flexible and about the same thickness as a garden hose. It also had two discs that rested on either side of her neck, they looked as if they were made out of some sort of translucent plastic. Noticing that all the warriors and even Golt were wearing similar collars she rationalised that this must be some sort of uniform. However, where her and Cordelia's discs were white the discs on the warrior's collars were coloured either red, yellow, blue or green. Once the collars were firmly around Buffy and Cordy's necks the warriors stood back to reveal Golt standing on the other side of the chamber from where they were restrained.

“There, Buffy,” Golt came to stand right in front of Buffy, “now you are prepared for your training.”

“Training?” Cordelia asked but everyone ignored her.

“How do you know my name?” Buffy demanded.

“The Providers sent for you Buffy,” Golt explained without really explaining.

“Did they send for me too?” Cordy wailed, “Coz if they didn't I'd like to go home now...pleeese.”

“They arranged your transportation here,” Golt continued as he glanced towards Cordy, “Cordelia's arrival was an accident, but one that will be put to good use.”

“Look!” Cordy pleaded, “I'll be a great disappointment to you, keep her,” she struggled in her bonds until she could nod her head at Buffy, “she's the freak...send me home!”

“Shut -up Cordy,” Buffy sighed before speaking to Golt again, “these Providers of yours...”

“Correction!” Golt interrupted, “The Providers are not ours, we are theirs...”

“What do they want from us?” Buffy asked, she was starting to become just a little scared, being chained to the wall made her feel vulnerable and helpless, which, no doubt, was one reason she'd been chained to the wall.

“You are to be trained of course,” Golt said as if it was the most natural thing in the world to say, “what other use is there for Thralls?”

“Trained?” Cordy voiced the question that Buffy had been about to ask, “What sort of training?”

“Your old lives are over,” Golt announced, “you are to be trained to provide entertainment for the Providers...”

“Entertainment?” Cordy whimpered, “What kind of entertainment?” Golt said nothing while Cordelia demanded loudly, “I demand you tell me what sort of entertainment!” 

“You can demand nothing, you are Thralls,” Golt explained patiently before turning to the assembled of warriors, “Prepare them!”

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale.**

“It is my suspicion,” Giles began quietly, “that both Boffy, Cordelia and this Amber girl were victims of witchcraft!”

“Boffy?” Willow frowned at Giles.

“Witches?” Xander asked for clarification, “Are we talking pointy black hats, warts, hooked noses and broomsticks here Giles? Coz if we are I'm sure we'd have noticed someone dressed like that around school.”

“Don't be so foolish,” Giles told Xander, “the warts and pointed hats are all just so much Christian, anti-pagan propaganda. Witches look no different than you or me or even Willow.”

“'Even Willow'?” Willow squeaked, “What do you mean by that? Even Willow indeed...”

“I just meant that no one would suspect you of Witchcraft, Willow,” Giles tried to placate the redhead.

“Darn tootin',” Willow frowned even harder, “You won't find me flyin' round on a broom stick and turning people into rats or mice or pumpkins.”

“Look we're getting side tracked here,” Giles held up his hand for order before looking at Willow again, “this Amy Madison, you say she lost a lot of weight recently?”

“Yeah like loads,” Willow smiled, “I just said, right?”

“Would you say that she lost this extra weight a little too quickly?” Giles looked down at Willow and waited for her answer.

“Well...” Willow hesitated, “...now that you come to mention it...it all seemed to disappear over the summer break and that's like way too fast, I thought she might have had it sucked out, but now I come to think of it Amy's mom doesn't really earn enough to afford liposuction.” 

From what Willow had said, Giles inferred that Amy's mother was either widowed or divorced; another thought struck him; there did seem to be a lot of single women with children in the Sunnydale demographic. However, he thrust this thought aside for another day, he had more important things to deal with just now.

“It's very possible that this Amy Madison has been using witchcraft,” Giles went on, “you said she was trying out for the cheerleader squad?”

“Yeah,” Willow agreed, “but I don't think she wants to be on the squad enough to hurt someone or make anyone disappear...shouldn't we see if she's a witch first before we accuse her of anything.”

“Yes you're quite right, Willow,” Giles agreed, “check on the computer to see if she's taken out any books on witchcraft lately.”

“Hold on...” Willow started to type instructions into the library's computer when she was interrupted by a cry from Xander.

“NO!” he cried urgently, “That's a really bad idea...I mean she could be cooking up some big, mean, spell to...”

“The History of Witchcraft', checked out by Alexander Harris,” Willow smirked as she read from the computer screen, “Witchcraft; Myth or Reality? Checked out by Alexander Harris; plus there's a dozen or so more books about witchcraft all checked out by Alexander Harris...” Willow turned to look accusingly at Xander. “Something you wanna tell us Xander? Taking up witchcraft or is it just the naughty wood cuts of semi-nude witches you wanted to look at?”

“Okay,” Xander slumped defeated in his seat, “you've busted me, I'm just sad.”

“Sick you mean...” Willow muttered as she checked the records back to the start of the semester, “....nothing,” Willow announced after a minute or so, “Amy's not checked out any books on witchcraft or magic or even the supernatural...she's clean.”

“Just because she hasn't borrowed any books from here doesn't mean she hasn't got books from elsewhere,” Giles said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, “I think we better go and have a word with this Amy Madison.”

“Giles,” Willow stood up and switched off the computer, “its late and I really think that before we go witch hunting or whatever, maybe we should go see Buffy's mom?”

“Yes of course, you're right,” Giles agreed quietly, “I expect she's worried out of her mind.”

0=0=0=0

Sitting with her mother on the couch in their living room, Amy watched the local news with growing horror. Buffy Summers, a girl she only knew vaguely but who'd seemed nice (if a little scatter brained) and Cordelia Chase, the girl who'd threatened her over a genuine accident, had both vanished. But she'd only put a minor confusion hex on Cordy, it would have worn off in a couple of hours leaving Cordelia feeling confused and hopefully a little foolish. The spell couldn't have caused the two girls to vanish, could it?

“Mom,” Amy turned to her mother, “I'm going up to my room, I've got homework to do.”

“Okay Honey,” Amy's mom smiled at her daughter, “don't work too late and strain your eyes.”

“I won't,” Amy jumped up form the couch and headed to her bedroom.

Once in her room, Amy locked the door quietly behind her before getting the locked metal box from the bottom of her closet. Unlocking the combination lock, Amy grabbed her Book of Shadows from the bottom of the box and started to flip frantically through its pages. She had to find out what had gone wrong and how she could put it right.

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**Triskelion.**

As Golt swept majestically from the chamber the 'Thralls' fell on Buffy and Cordelia.

“Hey what do you think you're doing!?” Cordelia cried as eager hands started to tug at her clothes, “That blouse cost more than you earn in a year!”

While Cordelia screamed insults at her abusers as they roughly removed her clothes, Buffy stayed silent and bit her tongue as her own clothes were ripped or cut from her body. Not even complaining as rough hands slid across her body to squeeze her breasts or linger between her legs; instead of alternately threatening or begging her tormentors to stop like Cordy, Buffy remained silent only letting the softest, quietest moans of distress pass her tightly clenched teeth. Instead of thinking about what was being done to her, she quietly gauged the strength of her abusers as she fought to hold back the tears that threatened to blind her eyes.

The Cyclops' appeared to be about the same strength as a vampire, one or two of them she could deal with easily, had she not been securely restrained at wrists and ankles. The female warriors were strong but nothing really unusual, once she was free she'd be able to deal with them effortlessly; or so she promised herself. One thing was for sure, as soon as she was able these perverts, who thought it was all right to chain up sixteen year old girls and sexually abuse them, were going to die in some imaginative and painful ways.

Eventually Buffy stood naked against the wall as her capturers stood back to admire their handiwork. Hardly having time to draw breath, Buffy found her wrists and ankles free of their restraints. But, before she could react and do anything to strike back, four Cyclops grabbed her by her arms and legs and lifted her off her feet. Once again, hands were put where she really wished they weren't and again Buffy didn't try to resist or cry out; once more she told herself to bide her time, plus she needed to free Cordelia. Of the other girl, Buffy could see nothing, as the 'Thralls' who were carrying Cordy where behind her, but she could hear her. For some time now Cordy had stopped threatening or pleading for her abusers to stop. All she did now was sob or moan as her captors tormented her.

“Stay strong Cordy!” Buffy called, “I'll get us out of this...” Buffy didn't know if the Thralls understood her or not, although Golt could speak English there was no reason to think that the other Thralls could, “...they'll regret the day they ever saw us...okay?”

Before she could say anything else, Buffy found herself dropped onto the floor of a large, tiled room which smelt slightly of damp.

“OW!” Buffy cried out as she rubbed her knee where it had come into hard contact with the floor.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor and rubbing her knee, Buffy took in her surrounding. Fortunately they'd not been taken to some terrible, dark, torture chamber. No they'd been taken to a communal washroom that looked very much like the girl's locker room at Sunnydale High, it almost felt homely.

Her study of the locker room was interrupted as Cordelia was dumped on the floor next to her. The other girl curled up into a ball, it seemed that for the moment at least, all of Cordelia's self assurance had deserted her. Reaching out, Buffy took one of Cordelia's hands in her own, this act drew a moan of fear from Cordy's throat as she lay there trembling on the cold, hard floor.

“Don't worry, Cordy,” Buffy said quietly and with more confidence than she actually felt right at that moment, “I promise you we'll get out of here and get home.”

“There is no escape,” announced a female warrior as she hauled Buffy to her feet, “there is only serving the Providers.”

Buffy suddenly found herself held between two female warriors, who both looked almost entirely human. It was only then that Buffy realised that apart from the Cyclops guys (who'd not joined them in the shower) the only male human she'd seen was the 'cute' guy out on the arena. Buffy began to feel very worried and like Cordy, started to wonder exactly what sort of 'training' they were expected to do. The two women pulled Buffy towards the showers as another two female Thralls picked up Cordy and followed Buffy and her supporters club towards the showers. Once again Buffy didn't resist, there were far too many Thralls around for her to guarantee victory in any fight. She didn't even resist when the two females stripped off their silver swim suits and got under the shower with her.

As the water was switched on, Buffy found herself being scrubbed (with what looked like pumice stones) like she'd never been scrubbed before. Once again she clenched her teeth as the Thralls scrubbed between her legs, it hurt but she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of crying out. The water seemed to revive Cordelia and she cried out in pain as the Thralls scrubbed at her more sensitive parts, she even struck out with her fists, but the Thralls simply knocked her to the floor. Jumping on top of her they held her down and took even greater delight in scrubbing her skin until it looked red raw.

Once the shower from hell was over, Buffy was pushed back out into the locker room. Someone tossed her a towel and it was pretty obvious what was expected of her. Thinking that if she didn't comply the female Thralls would only do it for her, Buffy dried herself off. As she rubbed the moisture from her skin she found that all her body hair had been scrubbed off.

“No wonder it hurt,” Buffy told herself, next she found herself smiling ruefully, “one thing's for sure, I've never been cleaner!”

“Get off me!” Cordy wailed as she snatched the towel from one of her Thralls, “I can dry myself off you...you...deviants!”

“Cordy?” Buffy called, it looked like Cordelia Chase was back, “Are you okay?”

“More or less,” Cordy admitted, “no thanks to you.”

“Hey what did I do!?” Buffy snapped back, angry at being blamed for something that _so_ wasn't her fault.

“I don't know how,” Cordy replied as she angrily wiped herself down with her towel, “but this has to be your fault somehow!”

“Has it ever occurred to you that this might be totally bad karma caused by you being such a complete bitch?” Buffy demanded, “That I might be the innocent victim pulled into your hell by accident?”

“Look,” Cordy snapped back, “you're weird, all your friends are losers so it _must_ be your fault.”

“Give it a rest Cordy,” Buffy sighed as she threw her strangely dry towel at one of the Thralls, she was a lot drier than she'd expected to be, “if we're ever going home we'll have to work to...OW!” Buffy's hand went to her breast where the human looking Thrall had just punched her, “Hey! What did I do to you?” It was only then that Buffy recognised the woman for the one she'd hit earlier, “Oh yeah, payback, much?”

“You will never go home,” announced the Thrall, “you will spend your life entertaining the Providers. If the Providers like your performances they may let you retire and live out your lives breeding new Thralls for their entertainment.”

“Oh, yuck,” Buffy said quietly at the same time wondering again what sort of 'performances' these Providers expected of her, “It better not be anything icky,” she added under her breath.

“Here put these on,” the human looking Thrall held out a silver swim suit and a pair of silver boots to Buffy.

“I'm not wearing that,” Buffy replied in disgust, “they're so sixties!”

“Put them on, it is required,” explained the Thrall, “there is no other option...unless you wish to remain naked, the Providers do not care either way.”

“These Provider guys,” Buffy asked as she hesitantly took the shiny swim suit from the woman's hands, “they can see us now?”

“The Providers see all,” the Thrall replied like she was talking about some sort of gods.

“Oh, darn,” Buffy looked around the room searching for CCTV cameras; although she didn't see any she didn't want to go around with all her 'charms' permanently on display, so reluctantly she started to put on the swim suit.

At least this latest incident proved that Cordy and herself held some common ground; Cordy hated the idea of wearing a silver swim suit as well and her opinion of silver calf length boots made even the two Thralls who were guarding her take a step away from her.

After fastening the last buckle (the swim suit looked like it had been designed by some sort of bondage fetishist), Buffy looked down at herself, she'd heard of 'one size fits all' but this suit seemed to mould itself to her body and she was beginning to think she might as well have stayed naked. Looking over to where Cordy stood, she saw by the expression on Cordy's face that she obviously shared Buffy's opinion of what passed for sartorial elegance in this reality.

“Come,” ordered the Thrall that had punched Buffy and who appeared to be in charge.

Buffy and Cordelia were led from the locker room and down a long corridor into another chamber. During this trip Buffy noticed that the Providers must trust their Thralls not to try and escape because she saw no evidence of bars or locked gates. Of course just because she couldn't see them didn't mean they weren't there, however, Buffy filed the information away in case it became useful later. Turning another corner, she found herself in yet another corridor; this one curved gently to the right preventing her from seeing more than ten or twenty yards. The corridor was lined with what looked like cells and there were plenty of bars in evidence here to make up for any lack else where. Standing half way down the corridor was Buffy's old friend Golt; it was time to see if she could get any sense out of the strange man.

“These are your quarters,” Golt announced in his odd echoy voice, “open Thrall.”

At Golt's word of command, boss woman and another of the female Thralls took small, silver discs from pockets in their swim suits. These must be keys, Buffy told herself as she put this item at the top of her mental 'wanted' list. As boss woman went to open the barred gate that led to what was obviously going to be her new home, Buffy noticed the little sign on the gate; it read 'BUFFY' in really unfriendly lettering about two inches high.

This Buffy decided had gone about as far as she was willing to let it go; she'd been molested and humiliated (however she hadn't been anally probed, for which she'd be everlastingly grateful) and now she was expected to meekly go into a cell like some kind of pet rabbit into its hutch. The thought that the simile about 'rabbits' might be too close to the truth considering what the Thrall had said about 'breeding new Thralls' earlier. Looking around Buffy saw there were only the four female Thralls and Golt in sight and Cordy was in easy reach across the corridor. This seemed like as good a time as any to start her escape attempt.

Chopping with her hand across the throat of the boss Thrall (not hard enough to kill but definitely hard enough to disable) Buffy reached for Cordy with her left. Grabbing Cordelia's hand, Buffy started to drag her back down the corridor towards the locker room. From there, Buffy reasoned she could find her way to the arena and they could climb over the railings. After that she didn't know what they'd do, but she was sure she'd work something out.

It was as Buffy dragged Cordelia past Golt that her spur of the moment escape plan came crashing to a halt. Not having gone more than a couple of paces, Buffy found she couldn't move, she couldn't even scream as the pain ripped through her body. It felt like every muscle in her body was cramping and she found herself writhing in agony on the floor with Cordelia twisting and screaming silently beside her. Almost as suddenly as her universe had turned into mind numbing pain, the agony stopped and Buffy found herself panting for breath as Golt stood impassively over her recumbent form.

“That was foolish, Buffy,” Golt told her as she got slowly to her feet and turned to help Cordy. “Escape is quite impossible as demonstrated by your collars of obedience, return to your quarters.”

Reluctantly Buffy obeyed, this was something she'd not expected and until she found out how the collars of obedience worked or how she could remove them there'd be no more escape attempts.

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale.**

Sitting at her little desk in her bedroom, Amy stared at the pages of her Book of Shadows. It was becoming more and more obvious to her that her spell hadn't caused Buffy and Cordelia to vanish. There was simply no way she could have got the spell that wrong; it was one short rhyming couplet and a simple hand gesture, she'd used it dozens of times. It was the spell she used most often if she felt threatened as it was easy to cast and fairly harmless to its victim. The worse than normally happened was that the target of the hex felt disorientated and got a headache, plus they often felt a little embarrassed for acting like such a klutz.

So, Amy found herself thinking, if it wasn't her spell that had caused the two girls to vanish like that, had they actually vanished? This new thought entered Amy's mind making her feel slightly less guilty. Okay, she still felt worried that two girls from her school had apparently disappeared; Amy found that she couldn't get too worked up over Cordelia, after all she'd threatened her. But, Buffy Summers seemed a sweet girl who was friends with Willow, she didn't, on Amy's slight acquaintance, seem the sort of girl who'd just go off anywhere voluntarily with Cordelia. If that was the case what had happened to the two girls?

An idea came to Amy as she got up and searched her room for a map of Sunnydale, she knew she had one somewhere from back when she'd been a Girl Scout for a couple of months a few summers ago. After emptying the shelf in her closet onto the floor, Amy found the map and spread it out on her bed. Next she searched through her book of shadows until she found the spell she was looking for. It was quite a long one and it really needed something belonging to the person or persons she was looking for. However, Amy thought she might as well give the locator spell a try.

Reading out the words of the hex from her book, Amy concentrated really hard on the 'idea' of Buffy Summers and Cordelia Chase, later she had to admit to herself that she'd pictured Buffy Summers slightly harder than she had Cordelia; so, she was prejudiced, who could really blame her? Finishing the words to her spell, Amy opened her eyes and looked at her map.

“Nothing!” Amy said disappointedly, she'd really hoped the spell would work.

If she couldn't find the girls with magic this didn't mean that they were dead; she could have done the spell wrong, or, she really _did_ need something of the victim's to help focus the spell. There was also the possibility that the girls where somewhere not covered by the map. However Amy found herself thinking, there was always the possibility that Buffy and Cordelia had been kidnapped by some sexual predator and that she was partly responsible.

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6.

**Sunnydale.**

Standing in front of the door, Giles reached out and pressed the door bell and was rewarded by hearing the bell ring deep inside the house. Glancing over his shoulder he saw Willow and Xander standing on the path that lead up to the Summers' front door, both teens looked sombre and concerned. For a moment he thought it might have been better to have driven them home rather than bring them here to see Mrs Summers; but Willow had been so insistent and Xander had been unusually serious and 'grown-up'. How could he have refused to bring them? Sometimes people still surprised him...in a good way. Looking away from the teens, Giles was just in time to see the front door being opened by an attractive woman with an expectant smile on her face. The woman stood there for a moment holding the door open as her face fell, for a moment Giles thought she was going to burst into tears, but she held it together; when she spoke there was a hard edge to her voice that he hadn't expected.

“Can I help you?” Joyce asked sharply, “I really hope you're not reporters because I really don't feel like answering your inane questions...how do I feel?” Joyce's lips drew into a hard, colourless line, “How do you think I feel? My daughter is missing and...”

“No Mrs Summers I'm not a reporter,” Giles smiled reassuringly, “I'm Rupert Giles, I'm the librarian at Buffy's school,” Giles turned to introduce Willow and Xander, “and these are...” 

“Willow and Xander,” Joyce wiped away a tear with the back of her hand, “I'm sorry...” Joyce took a deep breath before adding, “Buffy has spoken of you all...often, particularly you Mr Giles...”

“I'm sure she used words like 'stuffy' and 'old' quite often when she mentioned me,” Giles tried to inject a little humour to lighten the mood.

“She did,” Joyce gave a genuine smile, “but only with great affection, the way she talks about you, I think you must be her favourite teacher...”

Giles noticed the use of the present tense when Joyce spoke about Buffy, she obviously still believed her daughter was alive and hadn't given up hope.

“...I'm sorry I'm forgetting my manners,” Joyce stepped back from the door a little, “would you like to come in?”

“Only if its no trouble,” Giles replied.

“It's no trouble Mr Giles,” Joyce replied tiredly, “to be honest I could do with the company.”

Stepping into the house, Giles saw a typical, middle-class, American home; better decorated than most, there were several pieces of African art that caught his eye, but otherwise it was all quite ordinary. Following Joyce through into her living room, Giles noticed that Joyce Summers was obviously the sort of woman who had standards and looked after herself and even during such a traumatic experience as her daughter going missing, she still found the time to dress nicely.

“Please take a seat,” Joyce gestured for her three visitors to sit down, “would you like coffee, you're British I believe, Mr Giles, I think I've got some tea somewhere?”

“Coffee will be fine,” Giles smiled at the old stereotype.

“Willow? Xander?” Joyce turned to where the two teens sat on the edge of the couch by the window.

“It's okay Ms Summers,” Willow sprang to her feet, “don't worry, Xander an' I'll make the coffee, you stay in here with Mr Giles and talk...”

“But...” Joyce was about to point out that Willow wouldn't know were anything was in the kitchen.

“Don't worry, I'll find everything,” Willow smiled as she pulled Xander to his feet and started to drag him in the general direction of the kitchen.

There was a pause in the conversation as Willow pulled Xander out of the room.

“Willow and Xander both love Buffy very much,” Giles told Joyce quietly, “in fact I think Xander has a little 'crush', as I believe you Americans call it, on your daughter, and Willow...” Giles smiled again, “...I don't think she's ever had a bestfriend like Buffy before.” That last statement was undoubtedly true in more ways than Joyce Summers could imagine, Giles added to himself. “Has there been any news?” Giles asked, “Have the police found anything out...about Buffy's disappearance I mean?”

“The police, Mr Giles,” Joyce replied bitterly as she sat down, “don't seem to care, they seem to think Buffy and this Cordelia girl will just turn up, that they've simply run off for a couple of days.” Joyce paused, produced a tissue and dabbed at her eyes, “But Buffy wouldn't just run off like that and I can't remember her ever mentioning this Cordelia girl.”

Giles shifted uneasily in his seat, all his Council training had never mentioned anything about how to console the grieving parents, or in this case, parent of a slayer. It was then that the thought hit him; the woman sitting in the chair opposite him wiping her eyes with an increasingly damp paper tissue was the woman he'd have to lie to. This was the woman who he'd have to explain to how and why her daughter had died. 

Buffy was the Slayer, it was inevitable that she would die sometime in the next couple of years. One day he'd find himself knocking on that door again and telling a weeping mother a plausible lie to explain why her little girl wouldn't be coming home anymore. No wonder the Watcher's Diaries always stopped so abruptly after the watcher's charge had died.

“I'm sure we'll find Buffy, Mrs Summers,” Giles tried to sound reassuring, “I've been doing some checking myself...”

“Then you don't trust the police either?” Joyce asked almost hopefully.

“They're not the most competent police force in the world,” Giles agreed.

“Have you found out anything?” Joyce asked anticipatively.

“I...” Giles took off his glasses and started to polish them so he wouldn't have to look Joyce Summers in the eye for a moment or two, “...it's early days yet, and like you I believe Buffy is alive and well and will come back to us.” Giles knew the words he was using were just platitudes and he needed to give Joyce some real news, even if it was negative news, “What I have found out is that Buffy and Cordelia are not what you might call close friends, so I don't think they've just ran off together.”

“Oh my god!” Joyce's hands flew to her mouth as visions of Buffy tied up in a dark cellar somewhere while some pervert did unspeakable things to her came to Joyce's mind's eye, “You don't think...?”

“I'm sure that nothing terrible has happened to Buffy,” Giles wasn't 'sure' of anything, but of one thing he _was_ sure; if something awful had happened to Buffy she'd die fighting to save the other girl's life...she was just that kind of slayer, Giles shook his head, no, she was just that kind of girl. “Your daughter, Mrs Summers is a truly remarkable young woman, and I'm certain that whatever we find has happened, she'll come back to us whole and well.”

At least he hoped she would, now where the hell were Willow and Xander with that coffee?

0=0=0=0

Willow stood in the doorway to Buffy's room, she'd never been there before. None of them had hung out at Buffy's house yet, but she felt sure they would have. Smiling Willow looked around Buffy's bedroom from her spot in the doorway; there was Buffy's bed where they would have lain watching TV or listening to music. There was Buffy's closet with all her clothes that Willow would have helped her choose. There was Buffy's diary where she would have written about what they'd all done together. But that wouldn't happen now; Willow felt...no, knew that Buffy wouldn't be coming back; she'd lived all her life in Sunnydale. She knew that when pretty young girls, even pretty young girls with super-powers, disappeared they didn't just turn up a few days later alive and well. No, if you were lucky the police would find their bodies; there'd be a nice funeral with pretty flowers and everyone looking oh so sad, Sometimes it was worse and the girl's body would never turn up, leaving friends and family to wonder if the next knock on the door would be their little girl or their best friend coming home again.

“Oh god Buffy,” Willow sobbed, “please come home...”

Wiping her eyes, Willow took a deep breath and regained control of her emotions, she had to be strong. She also had to get back downstairs, she'd told Xander that she was going to find the bathroom she'd been up here for what felt like ages and if she wasn't careful he'd come looking for her.

0=0=0=0

“...I feel so guilty,” Joyce explained to Giles.

“I'm sure there's nothing...” Giles started to speak but Joyce interrupted him.

“No,” Joyce shook her head, “you see I was so wrapped up in my own affairs that I completely ignored Buffy when she was explaining how she was trying out for the cheerleading squad.” Joyce noticed the look on Giles' face, “You didn't approve, of her trying out, I mean?”

“I thought she'd do better to concentrate on her...erm...academic studies,” Giles admitted.

“Oh I don't know,” Joyce stared off out of the window into the dark night, “did you know she was a cheerleader at her old school?”

“Yes,” Giles admitted, “she did mention it.”

“But I was too busy with my African Tribal Art exhibition to really get behind her, to encourage her and then...” Joyce looked at Giles as if she knew Buffy would never be coming back, “...I more or less told her that she was bound to start getting into trouble again...”

“I'm sure Buffy knew you didn't mean it,” Giles explained.

“No, Mr Giles,” Joyce shook her head, “you didn't see the look of hurt in her eyes as she walked out of the kitchen...when I saw her the next morning she still looked upset and that's the last I ever saw of her...if she never comes back, that's how I'll always remember her, that look of disappointment on her face...”

“But Buffy will come back,” Giles really wished he'd not let Willow talk him into coming around to visit Mrs Summers, “I know she will.”

Just then, Willow walked back into the room carrying a tray with the coffee things on it, Xander followed close behind, they both looked as if they'd been crying.

“Sorry we took so long,” Willow apologised as she put down the tray on the coffee table in front of the couch.

“Yeah,” Xander added, “it was difficult to find anything what with all the crates and the weird African statues...”

“Xander!” Willow hissed angrily at him in an effort to shut him up.

“No its alright Willow,” Joyce smiled and sat up as she became the supportive adult for the two teens who were obviously so distressed about their friend's disappearance, “it must be a mess in there I just haven't had the time to clear up what with...”

“African tribal art?” Giles said into the embarrassingly long pause that was in danger of stretching into infinity, “I noticed a few pieces as I came in.”

“Are you a collector, Mr Giles?” Joyce asked as she accepted a cup and saucer off Willow who had made it her job to hand out the coffee and cookies.

“Oh no,” Giles laughed, “I'm no expert but I do have an interest in all tribal art.”

“You must come down to the gallery on Saturday,” Joyce told him, before extending the invitation to Xander and Willow, “you all should.”

“You're going ahead with it?” Giles sipped his coffee, hid the grimace that passed his lips and then put his cup and saucer down; instant coffee, disgusting!

“I'm holding it in honour of Buffy, and,” Joyce smiled bravely, “if she's come back by then it'll be a celebration for her safe return!”

0=0=0=0

Giles had spent another ten or fifteen minutes talking to Joyce Summers before he claimed he needed to take Willow and Xander home. He'd left with promises to keep in touch and the assurances that he'd pass on anything he found out about Buffy's disappearance. After dropping Xander at his house he'd driven Willow to hers. As he stopped the car outside Willow's dark house, Giles had turned to look at Willow.

“Are your parents home, will you be alright by yourself?” Giles wondered if he should tell Willow she could sleep at his apartment if she wanted to.

“No,” Willow smiled, “I'm used to it, I'll be okay...” Willow hesitated before asking, “...we will find her won't we Giles?”

“Of course we will,” Giles replied not feeling at all sure he'd find his slayer again.

“You're a rotten liar, Giles,” Willow told him as she climbed out of his car, “I'll see you at school tomorrow.”

Watching Willow until he was happy she'd got into her house safely, Giles put his car back into gear and drove towards his little apartment. There was one more thing he needed to do before he went to bed tonight and it was something that he wasn't looking forward to. As soon as he was home he was going to have to phone London and somehow explain to them that Buffy, the slayer, had gone missing and that he didn't have a clue as to her where abouts.

No doubt Travers would yell at him and be completely unhelpful. But hopefully the council would be able to tell him if a new slayer had come into her powers. If she had then he'd know Buffy was dead and it was pointless looking for her. If there wasn't a new slayer then that would mean that Buffy was still alive and there was hope that she'd come home again. To be honest Giles didn't know which answer he wanted. Of course he wanted Buffy to be alive, but... 

Sometimes, just sometimes he'd secretly hoped that Buffy would die before he'd got too attached to her, before he loved her too much. He could deal with her death now, in fact he'd half accepted that she was gone. However, he wasn't sure and until the day came that he was sure, like when he'd seen her body, he'd hope and yes pray that he'd find her again.

0=0=0=0

Sitting on the edge of her bed, her hair still wet from the shower she'd just taken, Willow held the little gold coloured cross she'd taken from Buffy's room in her hands. So she was Jewish, but that didn't stop her saying a prayer to a god she didn't really believe in, every little helped she told herself.

“We will find you, Buffy,” Willow told the universe, “and we _will_ bring you home again...dead or alive.”

0=0=0=0

Lying on his bed in the dark, Xander imagined the life he could have had with Buffy at his side, with an unusual display of mental common-sense he realised that it would never have worked out between him and Buffy. But it had been fun for a while to think that it might have, he rolled over onto his side and closed his eyes in an attempt to get at least a little sleep.

“Good night, Buffy,” he murmured, “wherever you are.”

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

**Triskelion.**

Standing just inside her cell, Buffy heard the doors close behind her, turning she took hold of the bars in her hands and watched as the corridor emptied.

“How are you doing, Cordy?” Buffy called out; Cordelia's cell was on the opposite side of the corridor and a couple of cells down from Buffy's, they seemed to be the only guests at the Triskelion Hilton.

“Fine,” Cordy called back, “all things considered...”

As Cordelia went into a long monologue about how she was being victimized and how everything was Buffy's fault, Buffy tuned out the other girl's complaints and studied her new home. The cell, she decided was about the size of her bedroom at home. For a moment the thought of her own bedroom made her feel sad and for the first time she really wondered if she was going to see her mom and her friends ever again. Dashing away the tear that rolled down her cheek, Buffy sniffed and took another step into her cell. On her left she saw an alcove that contained a washbasin, shower and toilet.

“At least I won't have to pee into a bucket,” Buffy reassured herself.

To her right was a bed with a thin looking mattress, there was also a blanket and pillow. The cell's furniture was completed by a table that was fixed to the wall and two uncomfortable looking metal chairs. There were no closets or anywhere to hang spare clothes. She began to wonder if the silver, bondage swim-suit she was wearing was her only clothing choice and what was she supposed to do when it got dirty?

Pausing for just a moment, Buffy noticed that Cordelia had stopped speaking; either she'd realised that Buffy wasn't listening or she'd run out of things to say. Not caring very much either way, Buffy continued with her examination of her prison. The cell appeared to have been hacked out of the living rock, but it felt neither damp or cold and was in fact at a comfortable temperature. Running her hand over a section of wall she found that it had been covered with some plastic-like film that probably insulated it and stopped it getting damp. 

Light was supplied by what looked like neon tubes recessed into the ceiling, there didn't seem to be a light switch. Walking back to the barred cell door, Buffy took the bars in her hands and tried to pull the two halves of the door open. They didn't budge, in fact on closer examination it seemed to her that the two halves of the gate had fused into one. Looking closely at the gate where she was sure that the two sections had joined, Buffy found that her suspicions were correct. The gate appeared to have fused into one piece of metal when it had closed. For some reason this little fact frighten her more than anything else that had happened to her over the last few hours. If her captures could fuse metal together like that, what else were they capable of doing?

The answer came easily to Buffy's mind, the Collars of Obedience, that was what they were capable of doing. Reaching up to her neck, Buffy managed to get a good grip on the collar with both hands, the collar wasn't tight around her neck so she didn't have too much difficulty. Until she could get the collar off or even damage it in some way so it wouldn't work, she'd not be able to escape. All Golt and his goons needed to do was switch on the collar and she'd be going nowhere.

Getting a firm grip on the collar, Buffy started to try to pull the collar apart. Her heart leaped with joy as she felt the metal bend like aluminium under her hand, but try as she might she couldn't get the collar to break, she couldn't even break off the two plastic discs that were fixed on either side of the collar under her ears. Relaxing her hold on the collar, Buffy went and slumped down onto the bed. It occurred to her that the collar was probably made of the same material as the bars to her cell. Once placed around her neck the two ends of the collar had probably fused; an unpleasant thought struck her at that moment; what if the collars weren't designed to come off...ever? What if once you'd had one put around your neck it was there for life?

Another question sprang to the forefront of Buffy's mind, how long was 'life' here? So far, of the human-like inhabitants of this strange little prison that she'd seen, no one appeared to be older than their mid-twenties. After a moment this thought actually made Buffy laugh, it looked like being captured and taken to wherever it was she'd been taken to would actually mean she would live a longer life than if she'd stayed at home.

Although Giles hadn't said very much about the life-span of past slayers, Buffy was an intelligent girl and she could work it out for herself. Fighting almost every night against the forces of evil and the lack of any form of slayer retirement plan had swiftly convinced Buffy that she had a year, perhaps two, left to live...if she was lucky. Here, it looked as if she had maybe ten years of life left to her; all things considered whoever had kidnapped her had done her a big favour.

Hearing footsteps coming along the hall outside, Buffy jumped up and walked over to the gate to see who it was. Raising an eyebrow Buffy saw that it was one of the female Thralls scrubbed her in the shower from hell. Only now instead of looking as if she wanted a fight she carried a tray in her hands. On the tray were two or three bowls, a jug and a cup. Buffy hoped that she was about to be fed; she'd not eaten anything since her rather frugal breakfast and her tummy was growling and reminding her just how hungry she was.

“Step away from the door,” ordered the silver clad woman as she produced the small circular key from a pocket in her suit.

Obeying Buffy stepped back until she was standing by her bed, the woman touched the door with the key and it immediately slid open. The woman stepped into the cell and the gate slide rapidly closed behind her giving Buffy no chance of escape even if she was willing to risk an attempt while she was still wearing the collar.

“I am Tona,” the woman informed Buffy, “Come,” she put the tray on the table and sat down on one of the chairs, “it is the nourishment interval.”

Sitting down, Buffy picked up one of the bowls and looked at its contents, it looked for all the world like chopped up pieces of fried bacon, the other two bowls held what looked like chopped vegetables or fruit. As there didn't appear to be any knives, forks or spoons Buffy started to eat using her fingers.

“Whatever you call this its very good,” Buffy said between mouthfuls of the stuff that looked like bacon but tasted like chicken.

“It is nourishment, we call it that,” Buffy's companion explained.

“Nourishment,” Buffy repeated back to her, “that's like totally practical...” Buffy touched the collar around her neck, “...what do you call this collar?”

“It is the sign of our Provider,” the woman explained, “by the colour of the lights it can be known who holds us. When you are vended you will also have a colour.”

Buffy had noticed that the discs on the woman's collar were red while her own were a smoky white.

“Vended?” Buffy poured some liquid from the jug into the cup on the tray, she sniffed at the contents, it smelt like orange juice and tasted a little like it too, putting the cup down Buffy continued with what she'd been saying, “I've got another name for that, you mean bought and sold don't you? Where I come from they call that slavery.”

“When you are trained,” the woman continued, she looked slightly puzzled by Buffy's words.“the Provider who offers the most Splonders puts his colour on you.”

“This collar thing,” Buffy rubbed the metal around her neck, “is Golt the only one who can control it?”

Buffy was thinking that if she could take Golt out of the picture she and Cordy might have a chance of making a successful escape.

“It is only to warn and punish,” the woman replied uncertainly, it was obvious she didn't like all the questions Buffy was asking.

“How does he control it?” Buffy asked urgently.

“It is not permitted to talk of that...” Tona replied sharply.

“Will you bring me all my meals?” Buffy changed her line of questioning hoping to catch the woman off balance.

“Of course,” the woman looked relieved at this change of subject, “I am your drill Thrall, I will train you well.”

“You can try,” Buffy smiled insincerely into the woman's eyes; which were slightly too large for her to be truly human. “Tona, where were you born?”

“Born?” Tona asked uncertainly, “I have been here always.”

“Okay,” Buffy sighed, “maybe that was too difficult, lets try something easier, what about your mom and dad?”

“She who birthed me was killed in a free-style match...” Tona started to explain but Buffy had another question urgently waiting to be asked.

“Free-style?” Buffy suddenly had some inkling of what the Providers considered entertainment.

“You will learn all these things,” Tona explain without being very much help to Buffy.

“The other Thralls the ones that aren't like you, where did they come from?” Buffy wanted to know.

“It is not permit...” Tona was interrupted by a sound like a gong being struck and the lights starting to dim, “It is time for the sleep interval.”

Standing up Tona placed the bowls back on the tray and carried them over to the door, pausing she turned to look down at Buffy who was still sitting at the table.

“Sleep well,” Tona almost ordered Buffy, “in the morning I will come for you and you will start your training.”

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale.**

Standing alone in his little office behind the library's counter, Giles watched as his kettle slowly came to the boil. After waiting for it to switch off he picked up the kettle and poured the still gently boiling water into his tea pot. Putting down the kettle he stirred the tea leaves in the pot before replacing the lid. Sitting down he waited for the tea to brew.

After he'd dropped Willow off at her house the previous night he'd driven home. Once there he'd put off phoning London for as long as he could. Eventually he felt he couldn't wait any longer and reluctantly he'd picked up the phone and dialled the number for the watcher's headquarters in London. That was a conversation he hoped he'd never have to repeat, Giles smiled ruefully as he poured tea into his china cup before adding the milk.

He supposed he must be famous, he was the only watcher to have literally _lost_ his slayer. In between Tavers' invective, Giles had tried to explain what had happened. Eventually even Travers had to admit that the incident had been out of Giles' control. From this point onwards Travers had actually sounded like he was trying to be helpful. However, it was obvious to Giles that Travers was out of his depth; nothing like this had happened before. Finally Travers rang off with a promise to phone back as soon as they confirmed whether another slayer had been chosen.

True to his word, Travers called back about half-an-hour later telling Giles that as far as the Council was aware, no new slayer had come into her powers. However, this didn't mean that Buffy was alive. The Council had only been able to check the potential slayers they knew about. Like Buffy, there were always some potentials who slipped through the net, at that very moment a young girl could be worrying about how and why she'd become super-strong over night. It would take anything up to a week for the Council to track her down. After all, even using magic the world was a big place with a lot of people in it.

Once again, Travers promised Giles that he'd let him know as soon as they'd found out anything of use. Next he'd asked Giles if he needed any help. Giles considered this request very carefully before refusing. The idea of having other members of the Council of Watchers blundering around Sunnydale asking questions about missing sixteen year old girls filled him with horror, they'd probably get themselves arrested. In fact, and the thought made Giles smile for the second time that day; even if they'd done something similar back in the UK they would probably get themselves arrested there too. The Council really needed to get out into the real world more than it did.

Sipping his tea, Giles tried to work out a plan of action, first he'd try a locator spell, he had several he could use in his books on magic, of course he'd need something belonging to Buffy but he suspected Willow or Xander could supply him with that. Of course if he found out where Buffy was he'd have to go and bring her home. However, if he didn't... Well, that didn't mean she was necessarily dead. It might mean that she was well hidden or out of range of the spell. If this was the case he'd need to find out if this Amy Madison girl was a witch and if she had been involved in Buffy's disappearance. So far Amy Madison was their only real lead...

Now there was a thought...'their'. Giles had automatically added Willow and Xander to the mix when he thought about tracking Buffy down, but should he? The two teens were young and inexperienced plus should he be exposing them to possible danger? Should he keep them out of his investigation? For the third time that morning Giles smiled. He could no more keep Willow and Xander out of his investigation than he could stop the Californian sun from shining. If he tried they'd probably do something to get themselves into trouble. It was safer for all concerned if he kept them involved.

Now if Amy was a witch... Giles tried to work out what his next step should be. Just then his thoughts were interrupted by Willow and Xander's arrival in the library.

“Hi Giles,” Willow called as she rested against the counter and looked into Giles office.

“Hi there Mr G,” Xander called, “how's it hangin', found out anything yet?”

“First,” Giles sighed tiredly as he stood up and joined the two teens in the main part of the library, “like 'G-man', never call me 'Mr G' again” Giles paused to sip his tea and let Willow get over her fit of giggles, “Secondly, whatever _it_ is I suspect its hanging like it would normally; lastly I have some good news and some bad news.”

“Good news?” Xander asked eagerly.

“Bad news?” Willow asked more soberly.

“Yes, the good news is that as far as the Watchers in London can ascertain,” Giles put down his tea cup, “no new slayer has been called so that probably means that Buffy is still alive somewhere.”

“And the bad?” Willow asked slowly.

“They have no idea where she is either...” Giles explained darkly.

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8.

**Triskelion.**

After a surprisingly good nights sleep, Buffy awoke to find herself still locked up in her underground cell, she thanked whatever gods there might be for not making her claustrophobic as well as the slayer. Rolling off her bed, which hadn't been as uncomfortable as it looked (the Providers must have good mattress making technology she told herself) she shivered as he feet hit the cold floor. Walking over to her little bathroom she used the toilet before showering and brushing her teeth.

After drying off; again the Providers also appeared to have advanced 'towel technology' because although the towel seemed too small for the job, Buffy had no difficulty drying herself off. Next it was time to put on that terrible silver swim-suit. Having taken the thing off the previous night, there was no way she could have slept in it with all its buckles digging into her; she'd slept in the nude. Which she'd found just a little sexually exciting, the blanket and the covering for her mattress were made out of some very soft and smooth material, the touch of it against her skin had been quite a turn-on which had sort of made her feel very comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time.

Sighing heavily, Buffy started to put the hated swim-suit on. As soon as she'd done up the last buckle (why buckles she asked herself, why not some sort of clip) the suit started to conform to her body shape hugging each depression and swell of her body so it almost looked as if she was still naked.

“Oh!” Buffy gasped in surprise as the suit did something new, looking down she discovered she'd developed quite a cleavage, “Wow, look at those will you?”

Finally Buffy put on her silver boots, these she decided might look stupid and unfashionable, but they were extremely comfortable and so far hadn't made her feet sweat! After sitting for what felt like five or ten minutes, Buffy's training Thrall, Tona, arrived outside her cell carrying a tray with a bowl and a large cup.

“Stand away from the door,” Tona intoned as she reached for the little silver key in the pocket of her suit.

Doing as she was told, Buffy stood at the back of her cell while Tona unlocked the gate and quickly stepped through, once again the door closed too fast for Buffy to make a dash for freedom. It was rapidly becoming clear to her that any escape attempt would have to start from outside her cell; unless Tona made a very bad mistake that Buffy could take advantage of. However Tona didn't look like the sort of woman to make mistakes, at least not intentionally. Also there was the problem of the 'Collars of Obedience'; until she had some idea of their full capabilities all escape plans were on hold.

“Here, nourishment,” Tona set the tray down on Buffy's table before sitting down and studying Buffy closely. “I observe that the apparel has enhanced your form.”

“What this old thing?” Buffy smiled as she went to sit down.

“You look very attractive,” Tona added after a sort pause.

Buffy tasted some of the liquid in the cup and found it was simply water, she eyed Tona as she pulled the bowl over towards herself and looked to see what it contained.

“You're not coming on to me are you?” Buffy asked as she looked into her bowl to find it contained what smelt and looked like oatmeal, “Coz I'm soooo not into girls...unless they're like bestfriends then its totally okay to be into them...” Buffy frowned as she looked around for a spoon, there was none, “...is there a spoon or something?”

“Spoon?” Tona asked totally mystified.

“Okay, I see,” Buffy sighed as she stuck her fingers into the warm oatmeal in place of using a spoon, “too frightened to let me have a spoon in case I use it to tunnel outta this joint, huh?”

“I understand your words...” Tona replied, “...mostly, but I do not always follow the way you use them.”

“You know,” Buffy licked oatmeal off her fingers as she looked at Tona closely, “you sound a lot like my watcher...”

The thought of Giles made Buffy think of her mom and all her friends again, she felt her eyes start to burn as the tears built up in them and she had to turn away from Tona so she wouldn't see her cry.

“Is there something wrong,” Tona asked concerned, “are you unwell?”

“Of course there's something wrong!” Buffy snapped back as she tried to wipe away her tears with her hands, but only succeeded in smearing oatmeal across her face. “You kidnap me, take be away from my mom, my friends, even Giles; of course there's something wrong!”

“What is 'mom'?” Tona asked confused, “What are these things you call 'friends' and what is a Giles?” The young woman shook her head, “I do not understand these words...”

“Maybe one day I'll teach you,” Buffy sniffed, “now if you'll excuse me I need to wash up.”

Not waiting for an answer, Buffy got up and went into her bathroom where she washed her face and hands.

“Okay, good to go,” Buffy announced coming out of the bathroom a couple of minutes later, “We're going somewhere right? Coz I'd hate to have got all dressed up if we're not going out.”

“We are going to the training grounds,” Tona stood up and headed towards the gate leaving the breakfast things on the table, “your training starts today.”

“Yeah,” Buffy stood against the back wall of her cell as Tona opened the door, “this training, exactly what is that?”

“You will soon discover this,” Tona gestured for Buffy to precede her through the gate.

“Enough with the cryptic, okay?” Buffy said as she went to stand in the corridor, “Can't you just give me a straight answer and hey,” Buffy pointed to the breakfast things that still sat on her table, “Shouldn't you clear that up?”

“It will be dealt with by others,” Tona explained while at the same time not explaining.

“There you go again...cryptic!” Buffy rolled her eyes in frustration.

Distracted by the sound of another cell being opened, Buffy left off her rant about 'cryptic Thralls' and turned to see Cordelia step out of her cell and into the corridor.

“Wow,” Buffy breathed in admiration; Cordelia Chase might be the world's biggest bitch, but she could make even these bondage swim-suits look good.

“I know I look too hot, even in this thing” Cody gestured disdainfully at her outfit while still managing to ooze sex appeal as she walked towards Buffy.

“Oh my!” Was Buffy's next comment as she compared her own cleavage to that belonging to Cordelia; she immediately started to feel inadequate, adding a quiet, “Jeepers!” to her earlier comment.

Having just recovered from having Cordelia's cleavage 'thrust' in her face, Buffy next saw who Cordy's training Thrall was. Once again Buffy seemed to have drawn the short straw in life. While she had Tona as a training Thrall, who was a perfectly nice person Buffy felt sure, but she was a 'girl'. Cordelia had a guy for her training Thrall and not to put too fine a point on it, a hot guy. He was blond and looked a little like the photos of James Dean she'd seen in old books.

“Close your mouth and stop drooling,” Cordelia whispered as she came level with Buffy, “he's mine and his name's Lars...” Cordy smiled brightly, “...totally, wicked Nordic god, right?”

“Totally,” Buffy replied miserably as she cast envious eyes over Lars.

“Hey!” Cordy nudged Buffy in the ribs with her elbow, “Keep your freak-loser eyes of Lars, like I say he's all mine!”

“Whatever,” Buffy sighed despondently. 

“Thralls!” Tona called getting everyone's attention, “The training ground awaits.”

Following Tona, Buffy and Cordy walked off towards whatever the 'training ground' held for them with Lars bring up the rear and no doubt checking out the 'rears' of the two young women walking ahead of him.

0=0=0=0

After a short, but no less confusing walk through the underground corridors of the complex, Buffy and her little party came out into a square court yard. Once again there was an area covered in the same smooth grey material as the triangular court where Buffy and Cordy had arrived the previous day, only this court had no yellow symbol on its surface. Around the court there was an area of sandy soil; there were also some stone benches and more interestingly, racks with weapons in them.

Three sides of the court were bounded by rock cliffs that disappeared about thirty feet up and were probably part of a much bigger cliff or mountain. The other side had the same high iron railing as Buffy has seen on the court from the previous day. The major difference today was she got to see what lay on the other side of the railings. Left to her own devices for a moment as Tona and Lars discussed something in a language Buffy couldn't understand, she looked between the bars and out into the wider world.

Widely spaced thorn bushes grew in the same sort of sandy soil that edged the court. The ground sloped gently away from the bars adding to the impression that the complex had been built into an escarpment or the side of a mountain. It looked completely desolate out there, no trees or signs of civilisation other than what looked like some ancient ruins in the distance. It was as she was looking at one of the bushes that Buffy noticed something very odd, she was just trying to work out what it was when Cordelia came to stand beside her.

“Yucks-ville or what?” Cordy sneered.

“W-what?” distracted Buffy turned to look at Cordy and found herself staring at the taller girls cleavage again, “C-could you cover those things up or something I'm trying to think.”

“Think, ha!” Cordy laughed, “That'll be the day...”

“Unless you wanna try out these people's dental plan I suggest you shut up!” Buffy snapped angrily.

“Why you...OOW!” Cordy was silenced when Buffy's left fist connected with her right breast, “Bitch!” she groaned.

“I told you to get that cleavage outta my face,” Buffy replied reasonably, “now shut up and let me think.”

Rubbing her boob, Cordy remained silent as Buffy stared through the bars of their prison. Suddenly Buffy realised what was so strange that it had set off her slayer senses, the ones that told her something weird was happening. Looking from bush to bush, she saw that they all had three distinct shadows. Okay, the shadows where close together and overlapping but the were definitely three shadows for each bush. Looking up into the sky towards where the sun should be, Buffy gulped loudly.

“Cordelia,” Buffy said slowly, “just how many suns do you normally see in the sky?”

“What?” Cordelia left off rubbing her boob and looked at Buffy as if she was insane, “At the risk of getting my other boob punched, are you stupid or something? Even I know there's only one sun.”

“Think again,” Buffy pointed up to where three suns burnt brightly in the sky.

“Oh my,” Cordelia gasped as her face lost all colour.

“Yeah,” Buffy said quietly, “Looks like we're not...”

“If you do that 'not in Kansas' line,” Cordelia threatened, “I promise you that I'll punch _you_ in the boob!”

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale**

Putting the phone down, Giles walked out into the library and looked at the worried, expectant faces of Xander and Willow.

“Well?” Willow asked, “Don't keep us in suspense, what did your London guys have to say for themselves?”

Giles smiled, Willow could be quite forceful when she wanted to be, he coughed to clear his throat.

“The Council has checked North and South America, Europe and Japan,” Giles explained, “and found no new slayers, the rest of the world will take a little longer but its beginning to look as if there's no new slayer so...”

“You're saying Buffy's still alive?” Xander asked.

“Its beginning to look that way,” Giles agreed as he stopped himself from giving a lecture on Council search methods where slayers were concerned, “However...”

“However, is bad right?” Willow asked him.

“Perhaps,” Giles admitted, “Look as part of the search for a new slayer the council cast a number of locator spells designed to trace a slayer...”

“And so far the guys in jolly old London have come up blank,” Xander observed, “in fact it sounds like they've got zip.”

“Once more, Xander,” Giles sighed, “you've managed to put a complicated chain of events into a nut shell.”

“Yay-me!” Xander cheered himself quietly.

“Couldn't we do one of these spell things that's only designed to find Buffy and not just any old slayer?” Willow asked hopefully.

“That was the next thing I was going to try,” Giles walked over to the research table, “but I need something of Buffy's, some thing she's owned to make the spell effective.”

“O-oh!” Willow searched in her bag and produced the little gold coloured cross she'd taken from Buffy's room the previous evening, “Will this do?”

“Is it Buffy's?” Giles asked.

“Hey where'd you get that Will?” Xander asked.

“Oh...” Willow glanced away guiltily, “I-I...Buffy lent it to me...”

“But you're Jewish, Will,” Xander replied, “Buffy knows that so what's with the cross?”

“Erm...” Willow desperately tried to think of why Buffy would have given her a cross; quickly rejecting several possible scenarios that popped into her mind, she came up with something that might be believed, “...its to keep the vampires off, but I have to keep it in my bag in case my dad sees it and thinks I'm totally turning Christian or worse yet...Catholic!”

“Oh, okay,” Xander shrugged his acceptance of Willow's story, but then thought of something else that didn't seem quite right to him, “Hey!?”

“Hey, what?” Willow replied close to panic.

“How come I didn't get a cross?” Xander complained, “I need something to keep the vamps off too y'know?”

“Well maybe...” Willow began but was interrupted by Giles.

“When you two have quite finished,” he reached over to Willow and took the cross from her hand, “This might do, when did Buffy give it to you?”

“Give it to me?” Willow looked nonplussed by the question, “Erm...only the other day, why?”

“Hmm,” Giles studied the cross for a moment before handing it back to Willow, “I think we'll need something more personal that the cross, thank-you all the same Willow.”

“Like?” Xander prompted.

“Oh, hair, nail clippings a piece of personal clothing,” Giles suggested.

“Personal clothing?” Willow queried.

“Erm...” Giles looked embarrassed for a moment or two, “...oh, you know? Something she's worn next to her skin.”

“Huh?” Willow and Xander chorused.

“Underwear,” Giles finally said almost too quietly for the teens to hear, “something like her bra or panties...ones she worn recently would be best...and before they're washed would be helpful.”

“Giles?” Willow dragged out his name accusingly, “Is there something icky you should be confessing to right about now?”

“Hey!” Xander almost shouted, “Leave it to me, I think I've got just the thing!”

“You have?” Willow asked feeling slightly uncomfortable around her two male friends.

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

**Triskelion.**

“This,” Tona threw the weapon to Buffy, “is the Thrall Fighting Pike, the traditional weapon of the Thralls.”

Catching the weapon deftly in one hand, Buffy resisted the urge to show off, she'd decided that it would be a good idea not to let Tona know the full extent of her combat abilities. The weapon was about six feet long which made it nearly a foot taller than Buffy, the pointy end consisted of a blade just over a foot in length, Buffy noticed that the blade had a blunted edge so this was probably a training weapon. From its design Buffy saw that the blade would be good for cutting as well as stabbing. The opposite end of this so-called pike had what looked like a grappling hook built into it. Obviously you were supposed to use the hook end to trip or pull opponents off balance.

The 'pike', felt heavy and a little clumsy in her hand, someone armed with a sword could probably defeat a person with one of theses 'pikes' nine times out of ten if all else was equal. Buffy also had issues with this abortion of a weapon being called a 'Pike'. All the pikes she'd ever seen or heard of were between sixteen and twenty-four feet long with a narrow bladed point. The weapon, having been introduced by King Philip of Macedon was used en mass in a pike phalanx. In this way the phalanx would confront any enemy with a multitude of points to fight through before they even got close to the man actually holding the weapon.

Sighing sadly Buffy realised how being the slayer had totally screwed with her life. Just what kind of girl knew about this sort of stuff? What kind of guy would want to go out with a girl who knew how to fight with a bewildering array of edged weapons? Never once considering for a moment that there were guys out there who'd think it was really 'cool' that a cute girl like Buffy knew all this stuff, she let out a long sad sigh before starting to pay attention to what Tona was saying.

“The weapon is double weighted,” Tona was saying; Buffy nodded, that explained why it felt so clumsy, “to help improve your speed and muscle tone.”

Buffy smiled to herself, Tona was in for a nasty surprise at some point in the near future.

“Today,” Tona continued not realising that Buffy was plotting her downfall, “The Thralls Buffy and Cordelia...”

“Don't call me a Thrall!” Cordelia told Tona sharply, “and I'm not going to play with your stupid sticks!”

Cordy dropped the pike onto the floor and crossed her arms under her breasts which had the effect of pushing her breasts up a little more and exposing even more of her already stupendous cleavage. Turning her head, Buffy looked away not wanting to see any more of Cordy than was already on show.

“Pick up the pike, Thrall!” Lars growled menacingly as he stepped towards Cordy, “It is required that you train with the weapon.”

“No!” Cordy replied firmly, “I don't see why I should, I'm...AAAAAAGH!”

Cordelia screamed as her collar of obedience lit up and she fell to the ground in agony; having been looking in the opposite direction, Buffy hadn't seen what had happened exactly. But, she did see that Lars was holding something that looked like a small TV remote in his hand and he was pointing it at Cordy. Not really thinking about what she was doing, Buffy reacted instinctively. Springing at Lars to knock the remote out of his hand and also knock his teeth down his throat, Buffy found herself lying on the floor just short of where Lars stood. Clawing at the collar around her neck, she squirmed on the ground and screamed in pain. It felt like her entire body was covered in ants which were crawling over her as they bit and stung her.

Gasping for breath Buffy realised that the insect torture had stopped, climbing slowly to her feet she saw Tona put another remote back in her belt, obviously these 'Agonisers' were standard issue for training Thralls. Looking down, Buffy saw that Cordy was slowly recovering from her ordeal and was pushing herself to her feet.

“Bastards,” Cordy muttered under her breath before screaming again as Lars touched the control on his remote for a second time.

“Pick up your weapons,” Tona ordered, “it is required that you fight so we can accurately gauge your abilities.”

“And if we don't, I suppose you'll use those...AAAGH!” Buffy stopped talking as what felt like a heavy jolt of electricity passed through her body.

“Disobedience and wrong thinking will be punished...” Tona told her, “...rigorously. How pick up your weapon and fight me Buffy, I have no wish to punish you further...”

“Good,” Buffy made no move to pick up the pike, “because I don't wanna be punished any more...” she looked into Tona's large, blue eyes, “you don't have to do...UUUUGH!”

Once again Buffy fell to the floor twisting in pain as her body was whacked with muscle spasms. Suddenly the pain stopped and she found herself being helped to her feet by Tona.

“Please, Buffy,” the woman whispered so only Buffy could hear, “I'm not like Lars, I receive no pleasure from inflicting pain on others; please get up and fight me or I will be forced to punish you again.”

“Okay, you win,” Buffy pulled her arm from Tona's grip before reaching for the pike.

Touching the shaft of the weapon, Buffy stood up quickly and lunged at Tona's stomach. If the weapon had had a sharpened point, Tona would have ended her life lying on the ground with her intestines spilling out of the large hole Buffy had made in her stomach. Grunting in surprise and pain as Buffy's pike connected with her body, Tona managed to keep her footing as she back peddled and attempted to get out of Buffy's kill zone; she failed. Reversing her pike, Buffy tried to catch Tona behind the ankle with her hook, but Tona was well trained and faster than Buffy had allowed for. Skipping nimbly over Buffy's attack, Tona brought her own pike around to strike at Buffy's head. Forced to break off her attack, Buffy brought the blade end of her pike up to protect her head and deflect Tona's attack. The two pikes cracked together loudly as they met. The force of the collision broke the blades off both pikes.

“HOLD!” Tona ordered as she jumped away from any counter-attack that Buffy might launch.

Brought up short by Tona's cry, Buffy did in fact stop, she tossed her broken weapon to one side and stood sideways on to Tona prepared to continue the fight empty handed.

“I suppose your going to use the TV remote from hell on me now?” Buffy asked bitterly.

“No,” Tona tossed her own broken weapon to one side, “why should I? You showed great spirit and initiative when you attacked me, also you were fast and strong, stronger than I had given you credit for.”

“You're pleased?” Buffy sounded more than a little surprised.

“Why would I not be,” Tona almost smiled, “Now select a replacement weapon and let us continue with the training interval.”

On the other side of the training area, Cordelia was still hesitating.

“Pick up the weapon,” Lars snarled at Cordy, “or I will punish you again.”

Slowly Cordy bent to pick up the weapon only to have Lars bring his pike around in a long sweeping arc and knock her legs out from under her.

“Move faster!” Lars ordered as he stood over Cordelia daring her to try and attack him. 

Once again Cordelia reached for the weapon only to be kicked in the ribs by Lars.

“The longer you take to pick up your weapon and stand the more I get to kick you,” Lars sneered as he pulled back his foot ready to kick Cordy again.

Telling herself not to be such a victim, Cordelia grabbed for the weapon; snatching it up in her hands as she rolled away from Lars' foot. Continuing the roll she managed to regain her feet. Standing with her feet widely spaced and the pike held diagonally across her body Cordy prepared herself to fight back.

“Good!” Lars smiled, but not in a way that Cordy liked, “At last you are showing some spirit...” 

Seeing Lars start to strike at her head, Cordy brought the pike up in an attempt to parry the blow as she jerked back her head and body at the same time. Realising too late that Lars' attack was a faint, she felt her left foot being pulled out from under her by the hook on the other end of Lars' pike. Crashing to the ground again, Cordy tried to avoid the kick aimed at her ribs. Once more she wasn't quite fast enough and Lars' booted foot struck her in the side of her chest.

“Too slow!” Lars told her as he took the remote from his belt, “perhaps you need more encouragement to try harder?”

“No! Please no!” Cordy begged, but it was pointless Lars had already decided to punish her again whatever she did or said. “NO! NO! PLEEEEAAAAGH!”

Pressing the controls on the remote, Lars laughed as Cordelia screamed and jerked around on the ground like a beetle on a hot plate.

“No!” Tona warned as she grabbed hold of Buffy's arm to hold her back, “It is not permitted to interfere with a Thrall's punishment.”

“But he's killing her!” Buffy turned pleading eyes on Tona, “Do something.”

“It is not permitted,” Tona repeated as Cordelia's screams of anguish turned into long drawn out gasps of pain, “and the collar cannot kill you.”

“It just makes you wish it would,” Buffy found she couldn't watch Cordelia's torture any more; Cordy might be a bitch and a generally unpleasant person but she didn't deserve to be put through all this.

“If you try to interfere,” Tona said quietly, “I will be forced to use the collar again and again until you learn to obey...I do not wish to do that, Buffy.”

“But...” Cordelia's screams stopped causing Buffy to look over to where the other Earth girl panted for breath as she lay on the ground.

“Choose another weapon,” Tona told Buffy as she picked up another pike herself, “let us continue with the training interval.”

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale.**

“It occurs to me, Willow,” Giles came out of his little office and went to sit down next to Willow at the research table, “that it might be an idea to have a cover story.”

“A cover story?” Willow turned mystified eyes on Giles, “Like spies you mean?”

“Something like that,” Giles agreed, “I mean eventually someone's going to start to ask questions about what we all do in here almost every night.”

“Yeah,” Willow nodded her head; Giles was right; when you looked at it from outside the way the four of them hung around the library all the time might look suspicious, “What were you thinking of.”

“I don't know,” Giles shrugged, “I was rather hoping that you might have an idea.”

“Oh...” Willow thought for a moment before speaking again, “...the best I can think of off the top of my head is a Crime Club.”

“A crime club?” Giles frowned, “I don't think that's...''”

“Hey don't knock it Giles.” Willow grinned, “We can say we reinvestigate famous crimes an' stuff. It's just cool enough not to be that nerdy and too nerdy to be so popular that other kids might want to join in.”

“I say, Willow,” Giles looked at Willow with something approaching real respect, “that's really very clever.”

Just then Giles and Willow were interrupted by Xander as he burst through the library doors.

“Sorry I'm late,” he gasped as he walked over to the table and dumped his bag on the floor, “but I had to sneak out of school, go home and then sneak back in.”

“Now there's something I'd never thought I'd hear,” Willow smiled, “Xander Harris sneaking into school...”

“Yeah, well a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do,” Xander explained as he slumped down into a spare chair.

“And exactly why were you doing all this sneaking?” Giles asked.

“To get that stuff of Buffy's for that locator spell thing of yours,” Xander reminded Giles, “Hey you don't think I'd keep something important like that on school property do you?”

“Precisely what are we talking about?” Giles asked adding, “And why wouldn't you want it found on school grounds?”

“Two very good questions, Giles,” Willow leaned forward so she wouldn't miss one word of the explanation.

“Look you said you needed something personal of Buffy's to do this spell thing, right?” Xander picked up his rucksack and started to search all its side pockets, “Now it just so happens that I've got just the thing, or things.” Xander reached deep into his bag and pulled something from its dark, fetid interior, “There you go!”

Producing a small, clear, plastic, zip lock bag, Xander laid it reverently on the table in front of Giles and Willow's mystified eyes.

“What are they?” Giles asked looking at the three short, curly, blonde hairs that lay in the bag.

“Xander?” Willow's voice was low and full of suspicion; these three little hairs looked very familiar somehow and she struggled to think where she'd seen something like them before, slowly the penny dropped, “XANDER!” Willow screamed as she realised where she'd seen these hairs, or at least ones like them, “How? Where? When?”

It couldn't be helped, but Willow had seen Buffy naked in the showers after gym class. She'd also seen that Buffy had a cute little triangle of blonde hair around her...Willow's brain censored what she'd been going to think next...they were just like the three little hairs in Xander's plastic bag.

“Oh my God!” Giles gasped as his mind finally registered what he was looking at.

“Xander...” Willow repeated, following this with a heartfelt, “EWWWWWW!” followed by a, “Just how sick an' icky are you?”

“Hey,” Xander leaned back from the table to look at the horrified faces of two of the three people in the world that he was closest to, “You said you wanted something personal,” Xander paused before stating what should be obvious to everyone there, “you can't get any more personal than Buffy's pubic hair! Well, maybe you can but...”

“EWWWWWW!” Willow repeated with great feeling.

“How...” Giles paused as he took off his glasses, appeared to forget why and then put them back on again, “...and I know I'm going to hate myself for asking this, how did they come into your possession?”

“Oh god...” Willow struggled to keep her lunch down, “Buffy didn't let you...” again Willow's brain censored what she was going to say, “...y'know, put your...oh god!”

Willow jumped up from her chair and threw herself at a near by rubbish bin where she started to make retching noises.

“Are you alright, Will?” Xander asked concerned for his friend's well being and not really understanding what all the fuss was about.

“Xander,” Giles said calmly as Willow stopped retching and came back to sit next to him, “how did you come by these...erm...hairs?”

“Remember last week,” Xander looked at Willow as he explained, “Buffy asked me to take her gym stuff back to her locker?” 

“Uh-huh,” Willow nodded her head slowly.

“Well I sorta stopped off in the guy's wash-room and I sorta went through her stuff,” Xander continued.

“You're sick Alexander Harris,” Willow announced bitterly, “and to think I once called you my friend!”

“And you just found them?” Giles asked, while all the time wishing he hadn't.

“I had to search though all her stuff first,” Xander admitted, “they were in the panties she'd wore in gym class...”

“Uuuugh!” Willow dived for the waste bin once more and started to dry heave.

“Well,” Giles took a deep breath, “although I can't condone what you did...but it seems that we're lucky you did what you did...”

“Harris!” Willow lifted her head from the bin and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, “Once we get Buffy back, I _**NEVER**_ want to speak to you or see you again!”

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

10.

**AUTHOR'S WARNING!**

This chapter contains a scene depicting a serious and violent sexual assault.

**Sunnydale.**

“Men!” Willow sat down on a chair next to Giles after they'd cleared away the remains of their failed locator spell.

“What was that?” Giles asked tiredly; even with the aid of Xander's souvenirs the spell had been unable to find any trace of Buffy.

“Men!” Willow repeated as she crossed her arms protectively over her small breasts, “You think you've got a good one then...POW!” Willow's unexpected exclamation made Giles jump a little, “You find out he's some sorta perv who goes through your best friend's underwear looking for pubic hairs!” Willow looked at Giles, “Just how sick is that? I mean have you ever...”

“Definitely not,” Giles replied firmly; he paused and sighed, Xander's antics had really upset Willow, “You're very close to Xander aren't you?”

“I've known him, like, forever Giles,” Willow said quietly as she turned tear filled eyes onto Giles, “Okay he's done some dopey stuff over the years, but I always thought, hey, that's just Xander...” Willow sniffed and started to search her bag for a tissue to wipe away her tears. “What makes guys do stuff like that, Giles? Not that I think you'd ever done anything like this...I mean you're Giles and...”

Failing to find a tissue Willow tried to wipe away her tears with her hand.

“Here,” Giles took a fresh handkerchief from the breast pocket of his jacket and handed it to Willow, “You shouldn't be too hard on Xander,” Giles explained, “he's a teenage boy and teenage boys aren't noted for making good choices.”

“I know, Giles,” Willow wiped her eyes then blew her nose, “but searching through a friends underwear...I mean a girl's underwear is her own private stuff and not for, y'know...” Willow lapsed into silence for a moment before speaking again, “...I really don't think I can trust him ever again.”

“Don't be too quick to condemn him, Willow,” Giles replied softly, “I'm sure when he realises just how badly he's upset you he'll be properly contrite.”

“You know Giles,” Willow forced a smile as she looked up at the librarian, “I'm probably one of the few people at this school who knows what the word 'contrite' means...” Willow's smile became a little less forced, “...and I'm counting in the teachers there!”

“Indeed,” Giles agreed with a small chuckle of his own, he glanced at his watch, “It's late, you better go home. We'll have to work out what we're going to do about that Amy girl as she's our only lead now.”

“I'm sure she's not involved,” Willow said as she collected her things together, “even with the suspected witchcraft.”

“Well,” Giles went into his office to collect his briefcase, “I think we need to find out if she has been using magic first before we go any further.”

“Is that hard?” Willow asked as she waited for Giles by the door.

“Not really,” Giles switched out the lights and realised just how dark it had got. “Come on Willow,” he gestured for Willow to precede him through the door, “I'll drive you home its too late for you to be out on the streets by yourself.”

“Thanks Giles,” Willow took hold of Giles' arm as they walked along the corridor and rested her head against his shoulder, “you're nice and kind and considerate and not at all a complete perv like some I could mention.”

“You're too kind,” Giles replied, slightly embarrassed by such fulsome praise.

0=0=0=0

**Triskelion.**

Stumbling as Lars pushed her back into her cell, Cordy only just managed to save herself from falling. Staggering to the rear of her cell she turned to look at Lars as he sneered at her with ill concealed contempt.

“Clean yourself, Thrall,” Lars ordered, “I will return later with your nourishment.”

Turning away, Lars strode out of the cell as the door slid closed behind him, Cordelia had never been so happy to be locked in a cell in all her life. Limping over to her bed, she sat down and tried unsuccessfully to stop the tears from coming. She ached all over, there were bruises all over her arms and legs and she suspected her ribs too. Kicking off her boots, she slowly started to remove the hated silver swimsuit. As her fingers slowly unfastened the multitude of buckles that held her imprisoned within the garment, Cordy noticed that someone had laid out a new, clean swimsuit on her bed along with a robe. Well, she thought, at least she didn't have to wear the swimsuit from hell all the time.

Pealing off the suit, Cordy examined the parts of herself that had, up to that point, been covered...not that it took long because the swimsuit didn't really cover a lot. She was right, there were several large livid bruises on her ribs and stomach plus a couple on her breasts. No doubt there be a few on her back too.

“Bastard,” Cordy muttered quietly.

“Cordy?” Cordelia looked up as Buffy's voice floated down the corridor towards her. “Cordy are you okay down there?” Buffy called again.

“Okay?” Cordy shouted back harshly; she needed to vent her anger and hurt at someone and Buffy was her only target, “I've had the crap kicked outta me for the last twelve hours and you ask if I'm okay?”

“Sorry,” Buffy called back contritely.

Opening her mouth to snap back at Buffy, Cordelia slowly closed her mouth and shook her head, even that simple action hurt.

“No Buffy,” Cordy called back, “I'm sorry...I know you're only trying to be nice but...”

“I know,” Buffy said from behind her own bars, “you hurt and you're wondering why this is happening to you and...”

“Oh I know why this is happening to me,” Cordy explained, “It's happening to me because of you!”

“Hey!” Buffy squeaked angrily, “You do remember I totally saved your life, right?”

“Yeah,” Cordy gestured at her cell even though Buffy couldn't see her, “and look how well that's turned out!”

“Well, next time I see you about to be run over,” Buffy shouted back belligerently, “I won't bother trying to save your worthless life!”

“No!” Cordelia put her hand to her forehead and breathed deeply before wincing at the pain in her chest, “No, I'm sorry Buffy I know you saved be and you're trying to help, but I'm tired, I hurt and I'm hungry...maybe I'll be nicer after I've had a shower and rested a while.”

“Cordelia Chase nicer?” Cordy could hear the smile in Buffy's voice so she knew she was joking, “That'll be the day.”

“Whatever,” Cordy called back, she was starting to feel a little more like her old self again, “Talk to you later, okay?”

“Later,” Buffy called back.

Standing up, Cordy looked down at herself and all the cuts, scraps and bruises that covered her body. This was going to take time to repair she told herself and a good way to start was with a nice hot shower.

Picking up her new robe, Cordy draped it around her shoulders, she knew there were CCTV cameras everywhere (although she'd not actually seen any) but she saw no reason to make the lives of the perverts who were no doubt watching her at this very moment any easier. Taking her towel in her hand she limped over to her bathroom. After hanging up her robe and towel she switched on the water and adjusted it to a comfortable temperature. Stepping under the steaming water, Cordy sighed with relief as the water washed away at least some of her aches and pains. Squirting liquid soap from the dispenser on the wall into her hands, she started to clean herself up making herself feel more human the cleaner she got.

0=0=0=0

A little later after completing her shower, Cordelia sat dressed in her new robe on the edge of her bed drying her hair. As she dried herself off she wondered once more at the 'magic' towel she was using. The towel dried her skin off at one wipe while never seeming to get wet itself. It was doing the same to her hair, now all she needed was a hairbrush and some make-up and she'd be able to face the universe again. Just as she finished drying her hair, she heard something in the corridor behind her, looking up she saw Lars staring in at her, he held a large metal tray in his hand. Goodie, Cordelia thought, food!

“Stand at the back of the cell, Thrall” Lars ordered as he reached into his belt for the key that would open her door.

Getting up and still feeling as stiff as a board, Cordelia moved slowly to the back of her cell, she didn't know why Lars wanted her to move it wasn't as if she was going to attack him or anything. Stepping into the cell, Lars waited for the gate to lock behind him before he crossed the small room and placed the tray of food on Cordy's table.

“Nourishment,” he announced.

“Thanks,” Cordy stepped towards the table all the while feeling very uncomfortable, Lars hadn't taken his eyes off her since he'd come into the cell

Looking at the food on offer, Cordy saw that it was just like yesterdays fare, three bowls of different 'nourishment' and a jug of the fruit-like drink; she hoped this wasn't all she'd get to eat and drink otherwise things were going to get very boring very quickly.

“Sit, eat,” Lars ordered.

“What, no candle light and small-talk?” Cordy quipped as she sat down and started to use her fingers to eat her 'nourishment'.

“You showed little ability on the training grounds today,” Lars announced as he watched Cordy eat her food.

“Well duh,” Cordelia looked up at the blond haired sadist, and to think she'd thought he was cute, “My names not Buffy Summers y'know?” she replied thinking how petty that sounded even as she said it.

“This is good,” Lars cracked a smile.

“It is?” Cordy looked up at the big lug, perhaps she wasn't going to have to fight anyone ever again.

“Yes,” Lars took a step towards where Cordy was sitting as his smile grew wider, “It has been decided to take you off combat training.”

“Thank god for that,” Cordy said with some feeling as she took another mouthful of the fruit-like nourishment, “what will I do instead?” she gestured to the bondage swimsuit lying on the bed next to her, “Redesign these outfits?”

“No,” Lars reached out and stroked Cordy's hair.

Freezing instantly at his touch, Cordy started to worry about what she'd be expected to do instead of fighting.

“Hey buster,” Cordy stood up and turned to face Lars belligerently, “Hands off the hair!”

“HA!” Laughed Lars, “That is the spirit that has saved you from an early death in the arena!”

“What!?” Cordy tried to retreat from Lars but there wasn't anywhere to retreat to, “W-what do you mean...early death?”

“You may be a hopeless fighter, Thrall,” Lars took another step towards Cordy, “But you showed spirit and bravery even though you have little combat ability.”

“I did?” Cordy muttered, “Gotta say it didn't seem like it...”

“So,” Lars started to unbuckle his padded leather-like tunic, “it has been decided to breed from you and I will sire your first child!”

“WHAT!?” Cordy yelled as she backed across the cell trying to get away from Lars, “But I'm only sixteen I can't go having children I've a life to lead...”

“Yes you are young,” Lars paused as he took off his tunic, “and you will bear many fine, strong Thralls for the entertainment of the Providers. Now disrobe and lie on the bed,” Lars took off his tunic to stand naked in front of Cordelia, “If you do not resist I will endeavour to make the experience pleasurable for you.”

“BUFFY!” Cordelia screamed.

Realising that Buffy couldn't help her, Cordy grabbed the jug off the table and threw its contents into Lars' face. Roaring in anger, Lars stepped towards Cordy only to be struck on the side of the head with the jug. Staggering back a little, Lars shook his head before coming at Cordy again. This time when Cordy swung the jug, Lars parried the blow with his forearm. Grabbing hold of Cordy's arm, Lars pulled back his hand and slapped her hard across the face.

Seeing stars and tasting blood, Cordy found herself flying across the cell and colliding with the far wall. Once again Lars advanced on her, grabbed her by her hair and pulled her roughly to her feet. Finding herself being lifted off the ground, Cordelia swung her fist with all her strength aiming at Lars nose. Her blow missed its intended target and instead hit Lars' rock hard chin.

“OOOOW!” Cordy cried as it felt like every bone in her hand had just shattered, however she didn't have long to register the pain in her hand as Lars punched her in the stomach knocking all the breath from her lungs and making her want to throw up.

Once again Lars grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back to her feet.

“No...Please...” Cordy begged as Lars pulled back his fist ready to strike.

Lars' fist hit Cordy on the side of the head, for a moment she must have passed out because when she opened her eyes again she saw Lars standing over her, his large, blood engorged penis, throbbing almost in reach of her hands. Making one last effort she swung her fist drunkenly at Lars' penis hitting it squarely and making him howl with pain. Groaning in triumph, Cordy watched as Lars' penis shrank to its normal size as he staggered away from her.

Pushing herself to her feet, Cordy looked around desperately for a weapon. The jug was lost, but the metal tray her food had come on was still lying on the table. Grabbing the tray she raised it above her head preparing to bring it smashing down on her attacker's head. Unfortunately, she never landed the blow; recovering with impossible speed, Lars lashed out and hit Cordy in the solar plexus. Finding she couldn't breath as the pain engulfed her body, she dropped the tray. It fell with a clang onto the floor as Lars stepped up close to her and punched her in the stomach.

Falling to the floor, Cordy managed a weak cry of pain as Lars kicked her viciously in the body always being careful not to kick so hard as to break anything and he never once kicking her in the head. Cordy lay there under the assault defending herself the best she could and wishing she could pass out. Slowly she realised that Lars wasn't kicking her anymore, she lay panting on the floor savouring these few almost pain free moments. Once again she found herself being pulled upright by her hair.

“I'm sorry...” Cordelia moaned, “...do w-whatever you w-want b-but p-please don't h-hit me a-any more!”

Laughing Lars pulled her robe from her body, somehow it had remained fastened all through the beating she'd just received. Cordy felt herself being thrown on to her bed, landing on her back she was aware that Lars hadn't immediately jumped on top of her. Perhaps, she hoped against hope, that punching his penis had put him off the idea of raping her, but no, she wasn't that lucky.

Watching through tear blurred eyes, she saw Lars searching for something in his discarded tunic, when he stood up and turned towards her she saw he had the remote for the collar of obedience held in his hand.

“Noooooo!” Cordy wailed as she realised what Lars was going to do, “Bufffffy! Please...help meEEEEEEEAAAAGH!”

0=0=0=0

“CORDELIA!” Buffy yelled down the corridor as Cordy's screams echoed and re-echoed up and down the hall.

Once again Buffy threw herself at the bars trying to open them or bend them so she could go and help the other Earth girl. But the bars resisted even slayer strength remaining firmly closed and unbent. Realising there was nothing she could do to help Cordy, Buffy placed her hands over her ears to block out Cordelia's screams, she sat on her bed and sobbed for Cordelia and for her own inability to help. Although she couldn't see what was happening, Buffy didn't need to be a genius to work out what was going on. If anyone tried to rape her, she promised herself that the Thralls would be mopping up their own blood for weeks. Buffy also made a promise to herself that the first chance she got, Lars would be a dead man.

0=0=0=0


	11. Chapter 11

11.

**Triskelion**

Sleeping only fitfully that night, Buffy awoke several times to get up and pace her cell like a caged tiger. On a number of occasions, when she woke up, on hearing Cordelia sobbing in her cell; Buffy would call out to her telling her to be strong and that she'd get them out of their prison soon. Even as she spoke the words they tasted like ashes in her mouth.

Eventually Buffy awoke from her broken sleep to find it was morning, at least the light levels in the underground complex were rising so she assumed another day had broken. Getting up she heard no sound from Cordy's cell, in a way this worried her more than hearing Cordy's cries of distress. Quickly Buffy washed and dressed before tidying her cell, mainly for something to do rather than from any feeling that she should keep her prison clean. However, her tidying didn't take long, the cell was after all only small and didn't have much in it to be put out of place. Eventually, Buffy just sat on the end of her bed and waited while her mind tortured herself with imagining of what had happen to Cordelia the previous night.

“Morning's greetings, Thrall Buffy.” Buffy looked up to see Tona standing outside the cell, tray in hand, “Stand away from the bars,” Tona ordered as she reached for the key that would open up the gate to Buffy's prison.

Obediently, Buffy went to stand at the back of the cell as Tona opened the gate and walked in. Once again the bars closed too quickly for even slayer reactions; as long as she had to stand at the back of the cell when Tona came in Buffy realised she'd never make it to the gate before it closed. But, perhaps there was something else she could try.

“Nourishment,” Tona placed the tray on Buffy's table, “Eat,” she ordered before going to sit down on one of the chairs.

Moving slowly towards the table, Buffy sat down, picked up the bowl of oatmeal-like food and stuck her fingers into the grey mush.

“What have you sick bastards done to Cordy?” Buffy growled as she used her fingers to transport the gloop from the bowl to her mouth.

“It was decided by the Providers that the Thrall Cordelia was to be taken off combat training and transferred to the breeding program.”

“ _Transferred to the breeding program_?” Buffy gasped hardly believing her ears, “She's a sixteen year old girl you can't...”

“But it is the will of the Providers that she serve in this way,” Tona explained puzzled by Buffy's reaction, “She is young and healthy she will provide many strong Thralls for the Provider's amusement.”

“Amusement?” Buffy pushed her bowl to one side, “Just what sort of creatures could do this to someone?”

“The Providers are just and fair,” Tona tried to explain, “the Thrall Cordelia will have the best of care and conditions.”

“Best of care and conditions?” Buffy seemed to be repeating things back to Tona a lot this morning, “Do you call having the B'Jeezus beaten out of you the best care and conditions?”

“She resisted,” Tona looked uncomfortable and wouldn't meet Buffy's eyes for a moment or two before explaining further, “Lars was sent to sire her first child, Thrall Cordelia resisted when he tried to impregnate her.”

“So she fought him off?” Buffy asked hopefully.

“No,” Tona shook her head, “he had to restrain her.”

“It sounded an awful lot more than just 'restraining' going on in there last night,” Buffy replied in a low voice.

“Cordelia resisted,” Tona repeated, this time the tone of justification was replaced by something that almost sounded like regret; Tona looked up to see that Buffy had hardly touched her food, “Are you not well?” she asked, “You must eat so you can keep your strength up.”

“Somehow I don't feel like eating this morning,” Buffy got up to go to her bathroom and wash the oatmeal off her fingers, when she saw someone walk past her cell towards Cordelia's. “What the...”

Forgetting about washing her hands, Buffy rushed over to the bars and looked out and down the corridor. There, standing at the gate to Cordy's cell was Lars holding a food tray in his hand. With his other hand he took the key from his belt and placed it against the plaque with Cordy's name on it. The doors slid open and shut rapidly behind him after he'd stepped into the cell.

Buffy stood there helplessly as she heard a crash as the tray was obviously thrown at the wall or fell to the floor. For just a moment a small smile came to Buffy's lips as she thought, 'good old Cordy, still fighting back'. However, the smile, small though it was, soon left her face as she heard Cordelia cry out in pain. Closing her eyes and letting the tears come, Buffy listened with a feeling of growing despair to the heavy, meaty, sounds of fists hitting flesh. Soon Cordelia's cries turned to moans as she pleaded with Lars that she was sorry and he should do whatever he wanted with her if only he'd stop hitting her.

Turning away from the bars, Buffy tried to block out the sounds of violet sexual activity coming from Cordy's cell. Wiping away her tears, she glanced at Tona, the disgust and contempt in her eyes made Tona look away for just a second, but a second was all Buffy needed. In an instant, she was across the cell her hand at Tona's throat. Pushing the woman up against the cell wall, Buffy lifted her off her feet and with her free hand started to search for the key to open the door.

Buffy's plan hadn't been thought out, it was more instinctual than thought through with logic. Reasoning that if she could get Tona's key she might be able to get to Cordy, kill Lars and get them both to the surface and away from the complex. Buffy hadn't worked out what she'd do next but at least they'd be free and no one would rape Cordy ever again, at least not if the slayer had anything to say about it.

As Buffy fumbled trying to retrieve the key from Tona's pocket, the woman tried to release Buffy's hold on her throat. The action had been instinctive and not a sensible tactical move on Tona's part. But, Tona was an extremely well trained warrior and soon realised her mistake. While Buffy was holding her with one hand and searching for the key with the other she'd left her body wide open to attack. Seeing her opportunity, Tona struck out with her hands before the hold on her throat left her unconscious.

Much to her surprise Tona found her blows had little effect, the Earth girl's body seem to be able to soak up punishment, Tona realised she'd seriously underestimated her opponent. 

As her eyes started to flicker shut and her arms lost all there strength, Tona found herself slumped on the floor, the hand on her throat suddenly gone. Blinking her eyes open and desperately trying to fight off unconsciousness, Tona looked up to see Buffy heading for the cell door key in hand. Fumbling at her belt with fingers that felt too big for her hand, Tona managed to pull the remote unit from its resting place and point it at Buffy. Mashing down with her thumb on the control stud, Tona was relieved to hear Buffy's screams of agony. Some how she's just managed to save herself and Buffy from a long, slow, painful death.

Getting to the cell door, Buffy had slipped her arm through the bars and held the key over the lock. Just as she felt the gate starting to open waves of unimaginable pain surged through her body. Like a puppet that had had its strings cut she fell to the floor where she twitched like a frog in a science experiment having electric shocks passed through its body.

Gasping for breath, Buffy found that the pain had stopped as quickly as it had started. Climbing slowly to her feet, she turned to see Tona still lying against the wall of the cell. Taking a step towards the woman, Buffy found herself screaming in agony as the blood in her veins turned to fire. Hardly had she fallen to the floor than the pain stopped and she was left to gasp for breath once more.

“If you keep trying to attack me,” Tona was almost pleading with Buffy to stop, “I will have to keep punishing you. If I have to keep punishing you the Providers might think that you are untrainable...”

“Good,” Buffy spat the word out as if it was something unpleasant in her mouth.

“No you misunderstand,” by now Tona had pushed herself to her feet; she still held the remote in her hand and it was still pointed at Buffy, “If you are untrainable the Providers will have you killed, you won't even be allowed to be put to breeding. They will think you are too dangerous to keep alive.”

“Oh god,” Buffy realised how close she might have come to death.

“Even if you had escaped the complex you would not have survived for long,” Tona was fully up right now with the remote still in her hand, “beyond the confines of the complex there is nothing but desolation...if you had succeeded in freeing yourself and Cordelia you would only have died in the desert.”

Tears of frustration and anger trickled down Buffy's face; she was trapped and there didn't seem to be anyway to escape.

“Do not cry,” Tona said softly as she reached out to Buffy but quickly thought better of it and lowered her hand; instead she went on in a more business like voice, “Wash your face quickly, we are late for the training interval.”

0=0=0=0

When Buffy and Tona arrived at the training grounds they found that Lars, one of the Cyclops' and another female warrior were already there. Buffy was also shocked to see Cordelia sitting hunched up on one of the stone benches.

“What's Cordy doing here?” Buffy whispered in Tona's ear, “I thought you said she wasn't going to be trained for combat any more.”

“I do not know,” Tona replied; Buffy could tell by the look of confusion on the woman's face that she was telling the truth.

“I'm going over there to talk to her,” Buffy turned to stride away from Tona.

“No!” Tona pleaded, “It is not permitted!”

“To hell with 'not permitted',” Buffy snapped as she turned and stood very close to Tona.

Grabbing hold of Tona's hand, Buffy started to squeeze and felt the bones in Tona's hand start to bend and move under the pressure she put on them, Tona gave only a quiet cry of pain as she tried to find her remote unit.

“You must realise by now how strong I really am,” Buffy hissed; to any one watching from more than a yard away it looked like Tona and Buffy were having a private, whispered conversation, “so you can probably guess that if you go for your little box-of-pain-toy there or try to stop me I can crush every bone in your hand so you'll never be able to pick up a weapon again,” Buffy looked into Tona's eyes with cold fury, “What will the Providers do with you then?

“Now in a moment I'm going to let go of your hand and walk over there to talk to my friend and you're not going to try and stop me, are you?” Buffy squeezed Tona's hand a little more and felt the bones grate together as tears of pain came to Tona's eye's, “And another thing,” Buffy continued coldly, “if you decide to go back on our little deal, remember I can snap your neck like a dry stick any time I want to and training accidents happen, okay?”

Tona nodded her head and then sighed with relief as Buffy let go of her hand and walked over to Cordelia. Sitting down next to Cordy, Buffy was surprised to see Tona talking to Lars and distracting him from seeing her sitting next to Cordelia, Buffy smiled, perhaps there was hope for the woman after all.

“Cordy,” Buffy called softly; she reached out and placed her hand gently on Cordy's shoulder and felt the girl stiffen at her touch, “Cordy,” Buffy tried again, “look at me will you?”

“Come to gloat?” Cordy moved her head slowly so she could see Buffy.

“Oh no!” Buffy tried hard to keep her voice from breaking as she took in Cordy's bruised and battered face.

One eye was almost swollen closed and her lower lip was badly cut, the rest of her face and indeed her body was covered in angry red and purple bruises, but it was the state of Cordy's once beautiful face that really shocked Buffy.

“No never,” Buffy tried to convince the girl of her sincerity, “I'd never gloat at you or smirk or sneer...I...” Buffy saw the tears coursing down Cordy's face and found she couldn't talk any more this was all too much for her sixteen year old mind to deal with.

“Buffy,” Cordy's swollen lips made her slur her words, “do something for me...?”

“Anything,” Buffy wanted to hug Cordelia's battered body to her but was frightened she might cause her more pain.

“Kill me,” Cordelia asked coldly, “I know you can, don't make me go through it all again, kill me and get it over with...”

“No,” Buffy shook her head, “No, I can't...I won't...”

“Pleeeez,” Cordelia sobbed quietly, “I can't take it any more, please Buffy end it now, I'm begging you!”

“No,” Buffy said with as much conviction as she could, “we'll get through this...together. Look...” Buffy glanced over to where Tona and Lars talked, something told her that she didn't have much more time left with Cordy. “Look, Cordy this Lars bastard, do you want to see him dead?”

Cordy nodded almost in-perceptively.

“Your wish is my command,” Buffy stood up, “he's as good as dead.”

Buffy walked back across the training ground to stand near one of the weapon's racks, a moment later Tona came and joined her.

“Thanks,” Buffy said in a low voice, “for keeping Lars off my back.”

“When I talked to Lars I discovered something you may find distressing,” Tona replied quietly as she examined a fighting pike.

“Oh god,” Buffy sighed heavily, “what now?”

“Cordelia has been brought to the training grounds so she can be punished in front of other new Thralls as an example to them.”

“What!?” Buffy almost cried out loud, “What is it with you people and punishing people.”

“It is the will of the Providers,” Tona replied sounding as if she didn't really believe it herself anymore.

“Oh yeah,” Buffy sneered, “we've all heard the 'I was only obeying orders' excuse before.”

“I have not,” Tona replied once again truly puzzled.

“Whatever, how can we stop Cordy from being punished?” Buffy wanted to know.

“Perhaps if something unusual were to happen,” Tona replied slowly, “her punishment might be postponed but it cannot be cancelled.”

“Okay,” Buffy nodded, “we'll go for a postponement, after all the horse might learn to sing.”

“What is a horse and why might it sing?” Tona was already confused by the events of the day and Buffy's words just compounded her discombobulation.

“I'll explain later,” Buffy replied as a plan formed in her mind, “Can you organise things so I can fight Lars?”

“You wish revenge for the things he did to your friend?” Tona asked.

“Something like that,” Buffy agreed.

“Yes,” Tona replied without any hesitation.

“Hey, I thought you'd take more persuading,” Buffy said in surprise.

“You are a young attractive female,” Tona explained, “Lars enjoys fighting women because it gives him an excuse to hurt them unnecessarily.”

“You don't like Lars do you?” Buffy replied in a calculating tone.

“Let us say I have my own reasons for wanting to see him bloodied and beaten,” Tona looked across the training grounds to where Lars stood, “wait here I will be but a moment.” 

Choosing a fighting pike for her up and coming combat with Lars, Buffy watched out of the corner of her eye as Tona spoke to Lars. Very soon she was walking back towards her.

“He agrees,” Tona glanced back at Lars before adding with more than a little bitterness in her voice, “as I say, he always agrees to fight young, pretty, women.”

“Hey, Tona,” Buffy smiled up at the alien woman and brought her pike around in what could have been mistaken for a salute, “We who are about to kick ass, salute you!”

Turning away from Tona, Buffy let the predator's grin spread slowly across her face, she was going to do so much more than kick ass. The two combatants met in the middle of the training ground, Buffy glanced over to where Cordy sat watching her, she tried to smile encouragement at the girl, but Cordelia didn't respond.

“So,” Lars sneered down at Buffy, “the little Earth girl...!”

Lars never managed to finish what he was about to say. Moving almost too fast for the eye to follow, Buffy had rammed the blade of her pike into Lars' chest with all her not inconsiderable slayer strength. For a moment Lars just stood there, eyes and mouth wide open in terminal shock. Slowly, like a redwood in the forest, Lars fell over backwards and crashed to the ground, Buffy was almost sure he bounced as he hit the ground.

“Gloaters never prosper,” Buffy told the corpse quietly.

Just as she stepped forward a voice like god's echoed from the sky.

“I bid two-hundred Splonders for the Thrall Buffy!”

“Three hundred!” Came another voice.

“Four hundred says she cannot be trained and has to be destroyed,” added a third.

“Its _so_ nice to be wanted,” Buffy told herself quietly as she looked up into the sky trying to see where the voices were coming from.

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

12.

**Sunnydale.**

It was Friday lunchtime and Giles, Willow and Xander were no closer to finding out what had happened to Buffy than they had been on Tuesday.

“I spoke to Mrs Summers last night,” Giles announced as the three of them sat in his little office, “she told me that the police have more or less given up looking for Buffy and that other girl...”

“Cordelia,” Willow reminded him.

“...of course, thank-you Willow,” Giles sighed and shook his head, “sometimes, you know, I question the Councils policy of keeping the world of the unnatural secret, however,” Giles shrugged before continuing with his description of his conversation with Joyce Summers, “I really wish there was something more we could do.”

“Poor Buffy's Mom,” Willow said sadly, “you know, I doubt my mom would even notice if I suddenly vanished like that.”

“I'm sure...” Giles felt he needed to support Willow's mother in some way and reassure Willow that she would be missed if she was ever kidnapped.

“No Giles,” Xander shook his head, “my mom takes more interest in Willow than her own mom does.”

“I'm sure that's...” Giles turned to look at Xander shocked at what he was suggesting.

“No Giles, he's right,” Willow replied in a resigned tone of voice, “if I were to vanish today, I don't think my mom or dad would notice for a week, maybe more.”

“How terrible,” Giles looked at Willow and wanted to say something that would make her feel better, but he couldn't think of anything.

His own childhood hadn't been idyllic, but at least he had known that his parents had loved him and had been there for him. It was only after he'd gone to university that his relationship with his mother and father had become strained.

“Well that's as maybe,” Giles thought it was time to get the conversation back on track before they all began to feel sorry for themselves, Buffy still needed to be found. “But we still need to find Buffy.”

“And Cordelia,” Willow chimed in.

“Yes thank-you Willow,” Giles removed his glasses and polished them.

“What about Amy?” Xander asked.

“Oh yes our alleged witch,” Giles replaced his glasses and picked up a book with the words, 'A History of Witchcraft' on its cover. “In this book,” he held the book up so all could see what a book was, “is a spell...well...more of a potion really to discover if someone has been using magic.”

“A potion?” Willow asked her interest piqued, “Is it hard to make, and do we have to dance around in the nude at midnight to make it work?”

“Certainly not!” Giles replied shocked at the very thought of participating in such rituals.

“Pity,” Willow said too quietly for anyone to hear.

“And anyway its called 'Sky-clad',” Giles couldn't resist imparting some knowledge.

“Huh?” Xander's ears had pricked up at the mention of nude dancing and then he'd grown confused when Giles started going on about dressing up in the sky or something.

“Sky-clad,” Willow turned to Xander and explained, “its what witches call dancing in the nude...”

For a moment Xander pictured Buffy cheerleading in the nude, but then put those imaginings to one side...he'd look at them later when he was in his room with the door locked.

“...I'd have thought you'd know that perv-boy,” Willow added bitterly, she still couldn't find it in her heart to forgive Xander for the 'pubic hair' incident.

“Whatever,” Giles rolled his eyes and made his famous 'annoyed clucking sound', “we still need to find out whether this Amy girl is responsible for Buffy's...”

“And Cordelia's,” Willow added quickly.

“...yes, and Cordelia's disappearance,” Giles gave Willow what is often described as an 'old fashioned look' over the top of his glasses, “and as part of that we need to find out if she's been using magic, which we will be able to once I've made this potion.”

Willow was going to make another comment about nude dancing but thought better of it; unlike Xander who was imagining entire squads of nude Buffy's cheerleading in his bedroom. Silence fell over the office while everyone was lost in their own thoughts.

“Well?” Giles asked after a moment.

“Well?” Willow replied slightly mystified about what Giles wanted.

“I need to put this potion, on to Amy's skin,” he explained, “if she's been using magic it'll turn blue, the darker the blue is the more magic she's been using.”

“So not the sort of thing you want to do in public?” Xander queried.

“It wouldn't be my first choice, no,” Giles replied testily.

“So we need to find somewhere private where we can pour this stuff Giles has made over a girl who may or may not be a witch,” Xander clarified the problem.

“That's about it,” Giles agreed with a nod, “and once again Xander has cut straight to the numb of the matter.”

“Assuming she is a witch,” Willow began, “what do we do in the five seconds _before_ she turns us into frogs or something? Coz, like witches can totally do that sorta stuff, right?”

 

“Erm...well, yes,” Giles had just seen the flaw in his master plan thanks to Willow.

“So, we also need not to be turned into frogs,” Xander pointed out.

“A-HA!” Giles cried out enthusiastically.

“A-ha?” Willow repeated surprised at Giles' show of enthusiasm.

“It's simple really,” Giles looked at the blank looks Willow and Xander were giving him, “all we have to do is to stop her from saying any spell or making any mystical gestures.”

“And you have a spell to stop her doing these things?” Willow asked uncertainly.

“No, but I have a roll of duct tape that should do the trick,” Giles replied a little too eagerly for Willow's tastes.

“Oooookay!” Willow added quietly, “I used to like this _so_ much more when Buffy was here to keep an eye on you guys.”

“Okay,” it was Xander's turn to speak again, “let me see if I've got it this right...” he took a deep breath, “...we need to lure Amy somewhere private so Giles can pour his potion on her. Then if she turns blue we jump on her, gag her and tie her up before she turns us all into frogs...” Xander smiled, “...I can live with that!”

“Perv,” Willow muttered darkly.

“Xander,” Giles said slowly, “you have a real talent for making the most complicated problems seem simple...but we still need to get Amy on her own.”

“Got it!” Xander cried out happily.

“Then go to the doctor and get some cream for it,” Willow quipped half heartedly.

“No seriously,” Xander turned to Willow eagerly, “I think I've got a plan...”

“Alright lets hear it,” Willow replied unenthusiastically, “but it better not involve you hiding in the girl's locker room.”

“No look,” Xander continued earnestly, “because Buffy and Cordelia went missing Amy is on the cheerleading team...”

“So?” Giles got up and started to make a pot of tea.

“Look, tonight is cheerleader practice night,” a very large smile spread across Xander's face.

“Trust you to know when cheerleader practice is,” Willow grumbled wishing she'd known so she could have...once again Willow's brain stopped her from thinking what she'd almost thought about cheerleaders and Cordelia in particular.

“Whatever,” Xander shrugged, he was starting to get a little fed-up with Willow's jibes, so he'd screwed up, couldn't she let it go already? “The thing is practice ends late and after dark. Now what I think we should do is...I just happen to be around and offer to walk Amy home.”

“And this helps how?” Willow asked unhelpfully.

“I walk her home, but first I have to stop by the library,” Xander grinned like some evil genius but without the maniacal laughter.

“Where we're lying in wait,” Giles said as he poured boiling water into his tea pot, “find out whether she's a witch or not...”

“And tie up a sixteen year old girl and kidnap her?” Willow pointed out the, to her, obvious reason not to go through with Xander's plan.

“Precisely!” Giles ignored the question mark at the end of Willow's statement.

“Oy-vay,” Willow looked heavenwards hoping for divine intervention to stop this obvious train wreck, but of course nothing happened; it was clear to Willow that god didn't seem to care what happened to sixteen year old girls, if he did Buffy and Cordelia wouldn't have vanished in the first place.

0=0=0=0

It was now nearly eight o'clock and Xander was hanging around his locker which was situated near the girl's locker room. At the beginning of the semester he'd expended a great deal of time and energy to ensure he got a locker situated in such a position that he'd have a perfect excuse to hang around the girl's locker room; now all that work was beginning to pay off. Pretending to be looking for something he watched out of the corner of his eye while several girls walked off home dressed in their cute (and more importantly) revealing cheerleader uniforms. Just when he thought he might have missed Amy, Xander sighed with relief as he saw her walk out of the changing room alone. Closing his locker door he looked 'round and smiled at the cheerleader and alleged witch.

“Hi Amy!” Xander called in a friendly voice as he walked over to her.

“Oh, hi Xander,” Amy smiled back making Xander's heart and stomach do a double backward somersault with a triple twist.

“So how's it going,” Xander asked totally at a loss as to what he should say next, “Erm...with the cheerleading an' such?”

“Oh not so bad,” Amy replied sadly as she dropped her eyes and wouldn't look at Xander, “But I only got the spot coz of what happened to Buffy and Cordelia...” Amy remembered something, “Hey! You're friends with Buffy aren't you?”

“Um, yeah,” Xander started to think that Amy wasn't sounding like an evil witch as much as he thought she should.

“Any news?” Amy asked showing real concern, “Her mom must be frantic...I keep thinking I should go around and say something, y'know, like, show my support or something, but...”

“Hey, Amy,” Xander remembered the real reason he was there, “Look its dark and I thought I'd walk you home,” Xander hesitated for a moment, “y'know, what with it being dark an' all.”

“Oh Xander!” Amy smiled and kissed him lightly on the cheek, which almost made Xander scream with surprise, “That's so sweet of you, but isn't it out of your way?”

“Erm...no...not much....maybe a mile or two,” Xander couldn't believe how easy this was, if he'd realised that talking to Amy was so easy and getting her to walk with him...well, he wouldn't have bothered tying himself in knots trying to find the courage to ask Buffy out; okay Buffy was prettier than Amy but Amy was still attractive...and taller...and she had longer legs...which sorta went with the whole 'taller' thing.

“No!” Xander realised that Amy was waiting for him to say something else, “No, it's not a problem, I couldn't have a pretty girl like you walking home _in the dark_ with all this weird stuff going down.”

“Oh Xander,” Amy took hold of his hand and smiled up into his eyes, “you're so sweet.”

“Oh god,” Xander muttered very quietly before adding, “Hey, do you mind if we drop by the library I need to pick something up?”

“Okay,” Amy started to walk along the corridor with Xander, “I didn't know the library was open this late.”

“Oh,” Xander forced a laugh, “it's that wacky Mr Giles, he's a twenty-four-seven kinda librarian!”

“Wow!” Amy replied innocently, “It must be a British thing.”

“Um yeah,” Xander smiled, “They sure like to read in England...hey look we're here!”

Following Xander into the Library, Amy looked around to see Giles talking to Willow.

“Hi Willow,” Amy smiled and waved at her old Junior High friend.

“Hi Amy,” Willow forced a smile; she really didn't like the idea of what was going to happen next.

“Hi Mr Giles,” Amy called thinking it would be rude not to say something to the rather strict looking English librarian.

“Oh hello,” Giles looked away from Willow to nod at Amy, “It's Miss Madison is it not?” Giles asked as he walked towards Amy as if he was going to shake her hand, “I don't think I've seen you in the library before.”

“No,” the smile slipped a little from Amy's face as she noticed everyone was closing in around her and blocking her escape route to the door, “I've not been around as much as I should,” Amy glanced nervously towards the door.

Feeling the atmosphere change in the library, Amy started to edge away from these suddenly strange people who up to a minute ago had looked so harmless.

“Well you really should you know,” Giles said as he brought the test tube containing the potion from behind his back.

“Oh I....AAGH!” Amy screamed in surprise as she felt something wet land on her arm, looking down she saw a big blue stain discolour her forearm.

“She's a witch!” Giles yelled, “Grab her!”

Suddenly Amy found herself being grabbed as Xander wrapped his arms around her so she couldn't move her arms. Realising what they must be trying to do, Amy searched her mind for a quick spell that would free her and didn't need her to make any magic gestures.

“Congel...” before Amy could say the Latin word 'Congelo' which should have frozen everyone in place for about ten seconds, she found Willow placing a length of duct tape over her mouth.

“MMMMMM!” Amy tried to scream as terror gripped her heart; this was what must have happened to Buffy and Cordelia.

Mr Giles, Xander and Willow must have kidnapped them to fore fill their sick, perverted desires. Even as she thought it, Amy couldn't think of Willow as being sick or perverted, in fact she'd always been really quite nice to her, even when she'd been all gross and fat.

“Hold her still,” Giles cried out as he pulled Amy's ankles together and started to wrap tape around them, “Willow use the other roll of tape to bind her hands and don't forget to bind her fingers securely.”

“Okay,” Willow grabbed the tape, “Hey, wouldn't it me easier if we got her on the floor?”

“You're right,” agreed Giles who really didn't have much experience in kidnapping and tying up teenage girls, “Xander help me get her on the floor!”

“MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!” Amy screamed as she was manhandled into a lying position; her arms were pulled roughly behind her and she could feel Willow start to tape up her hands so she couldn't even move her fingers.

“I'm sorry Amy,” Willow said as she wrapped yards of tape around Amy's hands and lower arms, “but you're gonna have to tell us what you've done with Buffy and Cordelia.”

“MMMMMM!” Amy said desperately as she shook her head, “MMMM MMMMM MM!” she tried to explain that she'd not done anything to Buffy and Cordelia, in fact she'd been trying to find them.

Having securely bound Amy, the three kidnappers stood up and looked down at the girl who lay at their feet swathed in yards of duct tape.

“So what do we do with her now?” Willow asked slightly out of breath.

“W-what?” Xander replied distractedly; Amy's little cheerleader skirt had ridden up around her hips and he'd been too distracted by the sight of her red cheerleader's panties to pay Willow much attention.

“Erm,” Giles removed his glasses and used his handkerchief to mop his brow, “we get her into my car and take her back to my flat I suppose, we'll question her there.”

“This questioning,” Willow asked suspiciously, “It won't involve hot irons or thumb-screws will it?”

“Oh I don't think that'll be necessary,” Giles replied reassuringly as he replaced his glasses, “Xander...?”

“W-what?” Xander had been imagining Buffy all tied up like Amy, but then he'd imagined himself tied up for six months in traction after Buffy had refused to be tied up.

“Wake up lad,” Giles snapped, “Help me get Amy to my car.”

“Erm, guys,” Willow called as Giles and Xander bent to pick Amy up, “You're just going to walk through school with a bound and gagged cheerleader under your arms?”

“Ah, yes,” Giles hesitated, “I fear Willow has made yet another good point.”

“We could wrap her in a roll of carpet like that Cleopatra chick,” Xander suggested.

“Yeah, but where are we going to find a roll of carpet at this time on a Friday night?” Willow wanted to know.

0=0=0=0


	13. Chapter 13

13.

**Sunnydale.**

With trembling fingers, Willow unlocked the door to Giles' apartment. The trip from school to Giles' home had been like a nightmare for her; wondering all the time, when would the police stop them and ask why they'd got a cheerleader wrapped up in an old rug in the back of the car? Luckily the Sunnydale PD obviously had better things to do than chase librarians and high school students who just happened to be kidnapping cheerleaders. Once the door was open, Willow waved frantically for Giles and Xander to bring the old rug, with Amy still wrapped up in it, down to Giles' front door. Conversing in loud whispers, that Willow thought would be heard miles away, Giles and Xander manoeuvred the still weakly struggling form of Amy down the steps and across the little yard before finally going into Giles' apartment.

“Thank god!” Giles gasped as he dumped Amy, none too gently on the floor of the rather small apartment where he lived.

“Giles!” Willow wailed as she rushed towards the rolled up rug and knelt down beside it, “Amy,” she gestured at the rug, “remember?”

“Oh, yes, sorry,” Giles, took off his glasses and mopped his brow with his handkerchief again.

“Hey, G-man,” Xander, who wasn't out of breath, looked around Giles' home, “cool pad.”

“Xander,” Giles replied having recovered a little from his Amy kidnapping exertions turned to look at the youth, “you remember what I said about the phrase, 'G-man' and the least said about your use of the term 'cool pad' the better.”

Suitably chastened, Xander slunk off and sat down on Giles' couch

“GILES!” Willow cried with increasing urgency, “Amy, remember?” Willow was feeling increasingly guilty about what they'd done to the girl, “Get her out of this thing before she suffocates!”

“Oh yes, of course,” Giles had seemed to have forgotten why they'd got a girl wrapped up in a rug for a moment until Willow had reminded him, walking over to a desk he picked up a pair of scissors and passed them to Willow.

Cutting the string that had secured the rug, Willow tried to unroll both girl and rug.

“Come on guys,” Willow pleaded, “give me a hand here.”

“Sorry,” Giles helped Willow unroll the rug while Xander remained seated on Giles' couch.

Very soon Giles and Willow had Amy free of the rug and sitting on a chair. Amy looked terrified as her eyes darted around the room, she was no doubt wondering when the sexual torture would begin.

“I'm sorry Amy,” Willow brushed Amy's hair away from her face before turning to look at Giles, “can't we just untape her mouth?”

“WHAT!?” Xander appeared from the other side of Giles' couch, “Are you mad Willow?”

“No,” Willow fixed Xander with an angry stare, “and I'm not a pubic hair stealing pervert like some people either!”

“I'm afraid Xander's right,” Giles sighed having how fully recovered from his kidnapping antics, “until we discover whether Amy's evil we daren't release her, which I’m afraid includes untapping her mouth.”

“Then how are we going to question her?” Willow wanted to know as she stood up and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Simple,” Giles drew himself up importantly, “I'll just ask her questions that she can answer with a simple nod or shake of her head.”

“Oh,” Willow hadn't thought about that, “Oh, okay then...”

“Right Amy,” Giles turned to Amy and the girl made a frightened mewing sound from behind her gag.

“Giles!” Willow rushed to stand next to the bound girl, “You're frightening her...” Willow placed a protective hand on Amy's shoulder as she bent down to bring her head to the same level as Amy's, “Amy, if you answer Mr Giles' questions we'll untie you...and please don't be evil.”

“Alright Amy,” Giles continued in a much softer tone, “just nod or shake your head, do you understand?”

Amy nodded.

“Good,” Giles took a breath, “Do you practice witchcraft?”

Again Amy nodded.

“Did you cast a spell on Buffy and Cordelia?” Giles wanted to know.

Amy nodded and then shook her head, Giles looked at Willow and shrugged.

“Do you mean you put a spell on one of them?” Willow asked.

A firm nod.

“Buffy?” Willow asked hoping the answer would be 'no'.

A very firm shake of the head.

“Cordelia?”

A rather guilty nod.

“Did you cause Buffy and Cordelia to vanish?” Giles asked as he looked Amy straight in the eye.

“MMMMM!” Amy shook her head franticly at Giles as she mumbled through her gag and tears rolled down her face.

“Please Giles,” Willow implored, “can we untie her now?”

“I suppose so,” Giles stood up and placed his hand on the back of his head, unsure of what he should do next; he'd really believed that Amy could provide some information to Buffy's whereabouts, but it looked like he'd been wrong, “Untape her mouth but I think we should keep her tied to the chair for now,” Giles looked around for Xander, “Xander give Willow a hand would you?”

Coming out from behind the couch, Xander gave Willow a hand to rearrange Amy's bonds, while all the time thinking how exciting it would be to have a girl all tied up and at his mercy. The fearful looks on Amy's face really got him excited and he started to imagine other girls like, Buffy or Cordelia or even Willow all tied up like that. Of course when he was younger, Jesse and himself used to regularly tie Willow up during their childhood games of cowboys and Indians. But that had all stopped after one game when things had gone a little too far and Willow hadn't talked to either of the boys for the rest of the summer.

“I'm sorry about this Amy,” Willow said miserably as she held a glass of water to Amy's lips.

“Please don't hurt me,” Amy whimpered after she'd taken a sip of water, “I'll never do any spells ever again! I promise...please let me go home...” Amy started to sob again, “...I want my mom...”

“Giles!” Willow turned belligerently on Giles, “We've got to let her go, can't you see she terrified.”

“I'm sorry Willow,” Giles' voice sounded hard as nails, “but until we're sure...”

“I'm with Giles on this one Will,” Xander called from where he'd once again set up camp behind the couch, “she might be trying to fool us, if we let her go five seconds later we might all be suffering from an urge to sit on lilly-pads and eat flies.”

“Noooo!” Amy cried, “I promise...I won't do anything bad...I've been trying to find Buffy, I wouldn't harm her.”

“Yeah that's what they all say,” Xander replied in a low voice; the truth was he was quite enjoying watching Amy cry as she struggled in her bonds.

“I'm afraid I must agree with Xander for the time being,” Giles sounded almost sorry for his insistence on keeping Amy tied up, unlike Xander he didn't appear to be enjoying frightening the girl.

“Look,” Amy gasped, “I admit it I did put a spell on Cordelia,” Amy sobbed, “but it was only a little confusion spell coz she'd been mean to me.”

“You use confusion spells a lot?” Xander asked from over by the couch.

“No,” Amy sniffed, “not much and only if people have been mean to me or threatened me and it only lasts a couple of hours and it never usually harms them and...”

“GILES!” Willow looked angrily at the 'responsible' adult, “This can't go on! Look she'd terrified I demand you untie her NOW!”

In Willow's book anyone who babbled like Amy just did couldn't be evil.

“Oh all right,” Giles sighed defeated, Willow was probably right and it didn't seem right to keep the poor girl tied up like that.

“NO!” Xander cried in a desperate attempt to keep Amy tied to the chair a little longer, “You can't, you mustn't, she'll...”

But it was already too late, Willow had freed Amy's hands and was now working on her feet.

“I do apologies unreservedly for kidnapping you and tying you up,” Giles said solemnly.

“And so you should,” Amy replied as she rubbed some life back into her hands, “You really frightened me...if Willow hadn't been there I...”

“That's alright Amy,” Willow knelt down and gave Amy a hug, “I wouldn't have let them do anything really bad, but there was the kidnapping and the tying up so I suppose it was pretty bad but I won't have let them do anything real bad like using hot irons or thumb screws or...” Willow stopped speaking as she'd run out of air.

“Tea anyone?” Giles asked as he headed for the kitchen.

“Please,” Willow and Amy chorused.

Willow still hadn't released Amy from her hug and, to be honest, she was enjoying the close bodily contact that she never got at home or indeed anywhere else and Amy seemed to be enjoying it too. If fact Amy seemed to be enjoying it maybe a little too much, there was a certain amount of 'wandering hands' to go with the hugging. Letting Amy go, Willow backed off, she felt a little hot and confused, but at least the hug (and the other stuff) had put a smile back on Amy's face.

“Erm...You were saying that you'd been looking for Buffy and Cordelia,” Willow said as she sort of avoided looking Amy in the eye for a moment.

“Yeah,” Amy nodded thankful to be free again, “you see Cordy threatened me in the locker room so I put a confusion spell on her...”

“Hey wicked!” Willow smiled and then frowned adding, “An' I totally mean 'wicked' in the 'cool' sense of the word.”

“The confusion spell should have just made her all klutzy and forgetful, okay?” Amy continued.

Despite her resent feeling of attraction to Cordelia, Willow had often wanted to see Cordelia screw up.

“Erm...” Willow said quietly, “...I don't suppose you could teach me how to do that could you?”

“Maybe,” Amy replied with a coy smile, “So, anyway,” she continued with her story, “the spell's only supposed to last an hour or two and _so_ not make you disappear.”

“How long have you been practising magic?” Giles asked as he brought in the tea things and put them on his dinning table.

“Since Junior High,” Amy replied, “I don't actually know many spells and I only use them if I'm threatened or to help people...I'll stop if you think its dangerous.”

“Magic is always dangerous if you don't know what you're doing,” Giles explained, “have you had any mishaps before?”

“I set fire to my bed once,” Amy admitted, “and I blew all the lights on my block last summer and...” Amy's voice trailed off into silence.

“And?” Giles prompted as he handed around the tea cups.

“And...” Amy looked from Giles to Willow as she accepted her tea cup, “...and I sorta set Amber's hands on fire, but I didn't really mean to and she's a horrible bully who really hurts people you know she put a girl in hospital once and she was always saying hurtful things to people and she was a big, nasty, horrible bitch!” There was a short pause before Amy added, “She was worse even than Cordelia...I mean at least Cordelia dressed nice, Amber is a total shank.”

“Indeed,” Giles sipped his tea, there didn't seem much else to say.

“I suppose you want me to stop using magic?” Amy asked miserably as she slipped her hand into Willow's.

“No,” Giles shook his head, “stopping could be more dangerous than continuing, but you need to understand more about witchcraft,” he glanced at his bookshelves, “I've some books you can read and I can help you if you like.”

“You can!?” Amy said excitedly, she was really relieved that she wouldn't have to give up 'the craft'.

“Hey!” Willow smiled, “Maybe we could be witchcraft study buddies?”

“Erm Willow, I don't think...” Giles began but Willow cut him off.

“Oh come on Giles,” Willow pleaded, “don't be a poop-head, I wanna do more than just hack into the school computers...”

“You can hack into the school computers?” Amy asked excitedly as she turned and grabbed hold of both of Willow's hands.

“Erm...yeah?” Willow replied uncertainly.

“COOOOL!” Amy hugged Willow just a little too hard for it to be a simple girlfriend hug, that is a hug between girls who happened to be friends.

From his hideout on the couch, Xander watched as Amy and Willow hugged; he noticed how Amy's hand drifted innocently towards Willow's butt and how Willow didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to break the clinch. He'd listened with interest as Willow had suggested how Amy could teach her a spell or two. He also remembered all those naughty woodcuts of semi-nude witches in all those witchcraft books that he'd got out of the library. Then he remembered all the stories of what young witches were supposed to do together...and that it had little or nothing to do with cauldrons.

Breaking apart the two girls spent a moment gazing into each others eyes until Giles coughed to get their attention.

“So,” Giles sipped his tea, “you've been trying to find out what happened to Buffy and Cordelia?”

“Erm...yeah,” Amy dragged her eyes from Willow's, “but apart from a weird feeling of unease I got near Buffy's house I couldn't detect any magical fields or spells or anything, of course I might have missed them coz I'm not very experienced...”

“Wow,” Willow sighed quietly as she looked at Amy in true admiration; that girl could really babble.

“Weird?” Giles wanted to know; perhaps Amy had inadvertently picked up on Buffy's slayer-ness, “In what way weird?”

“I'm not sure,” Amy shrugged as she once again sort out Willow's hand, “it was very faint,” Amy frowned as she tried to find the right words to explain what she'd felt, “it...it was like a trail leading up into the sky, but like I said it was very faint and getting weaker all the time.”

“Hmmm,” Giles put down his cup and pondered what Amy had said, as a clue it wasn't much, it might not even be a clue.

“Giles?” Willow called him back from his dark thoughts of never finding Buffy alive or indeed ever.

“Sorry,” Giles forced a smile, he shifted his gaze from Willow to Amy; just for a moment he thought the two girls had got rather close in a short period; then he remembered that Willow had said; they'd been friends in Junior High and they were of course Americans. “I'm very sorry that we frightened you Amy...”

“Oh that's alright Mr Giles,” Amy smiled at him then at Willow, “its all turned out for the best...maybe I could help you look for Buffy? I'm good at doing spells to find stuff, of course I've not been able to find Buffy yet, but...”

“Yes, why not?” once again Giles believed that having Amy under his supervision was probably safer than having her trying to find Buffy on her own, “Now it's late,” Giles checked his watch, “get your things together and I'll drive you all home.”

“Oh-oh!” Willow jumped to her feet and waved her arm in the air, while not letting go of Amy's hand, “It's Mrs Summers' exhibition tomorrow morning, you remember she was going to dedicate it to Buffy and I suppose Cordelia...”

“Yes?” Giles asked, “What about it?”

“Well wouldn't it be nice if we all went around to show our support?” Willow suggested, “I think Mrs Summers must be feeling real down about now.”

“You're so sweet,”Amy smiled as she leaned towards Willow and kissed her chastely on the cheek, “so sweet I could eat you all up,” she added in a whisper that only Willow could hear.

“OH!” Willow jumped away from Amy a little, “Yeah, I am aren't I?”

“That's an excellent idea Willow,” Giles agreed apparently not noticing or ignoring the interplay between the two girls. “We can all meet at the gallery at about eleven tomorrow morning,” Giles turned to look at Xander, “you think you can get up that early Xander?”

“Yeah? What? Sure...” Xander hadn't exactly been listening he'd been too busy watching. Oh yeah, he told himself, there was going to be some real, hot, witch on girl action sometime soon or his name wasn't Xander Harris!

0=0=0=0

Smiling to herself Amy climbed into bed, her life its seemed had turned a corner and it looked like things were going to turn out just fine after all. She'd already forgiven Mr Giles for the kidnapping, misunderstanding, because it had let her reconnect with Willow, she'd always liked Willow, she was clever and cool in her own strange little way; although she could do with some nicer clothes.

After Mr Giles had driven Amy home and given her mother a good reason why she was so late coming home from cheerleader practice. Amy had said good night to her mother and gone up stairs to her room. After having a shower to get rid of last of the duct tape glue from her hands and arms, Amy got into bed and snuggled down under her covers. Switching off her bedside light, she sighed happily. Slipping her hand between her legs, Amy started to stroke herself as she imagined what it would be like to have Willow's hand between her legs and to feel Willow's breasts against her own. With any luck she wouldn't have to wait too long to find out.

0=0=0=0


	14. Chapter 14

14.

**Triskelion.**

Breakfast time again, Buffy thought as she used her fingers to once again transfer lumps of oatmeal to her mouth. It was now three days since she'd killed Lars and she'd been 'sold' to the Red-Voice, as she called the entity, for one-thousand-two-hundred Splonders; Tona had told her that that was a lot of Splonders for a new Thrall. Oddly, Buffy felt more than a little pleased with herself that she was worth so much to the disembodied voice who now 'owned' her. However; she wished her new owner could arrange for a more interesting breakfast.

“Isn't there something more interesting to have for breakfast?” Buffy asked as she scooped up another lump of grey gloop and put it in her mouth.

“Interesting?” Tona frowned in a way that Buffy was getting very familiar with, “It is nourishment it is not supposed to be interesting.”

“You can say that again,” Buffy muttered quietly.

“Why would I want to say what I have just said again?” Tona asked as she frowned even harder.

“Tona,” Buffy reached across the table and squeezed Tona's hand in a friendly way, “don't get me wrong, you're a sweet girl and I really do like you...” Buffy sighed heavily, “...but you totally need to get a life.”

“What is wrong with the life I have?” Tona asked.

“I think I've just proved my point,” Buffy smiled as she scrapped the last few lumps of oatmeal out of her bowl.

The oatmeal might be boring but it did fill her up and give her energy enough to last through the 'training interval' which mostly lasted from just after dawn to just before dusk. It was hard work; Giles' training sessions with her were like a rest cure compared to a typical training interval. Another reason to eat the tasteless gloop was the knowledge that apart from an energy bar at around midday she wouldn't be fed until after the training interval when she came back to her cell.

Yes the hours were long and yes the training was hard, but, Buffy had never felt fitter or stronger; she was learning stuff that Giles had been hesitating about teaching her. Not only did she feel stronger she felt healthier too, not that her health had ever been a problem for her. Now she felt like nothing could stop her, when she got back to Sunnydale the creatures of the night better watch out because she was going to kick some serious demon butt!

The thought of Sunnydale brought thoughts of her mom and friends to her mind again, she even missed Giles and school. But on the good side at least now she didn't get the slayer nightmares any more. Poor mom, Buffy sighed sadly as she imagined her mother watching out the window waiting for her to come home. Okay, their relationship had been bumping along the bottom there for a while, but when it counted she still loved her mom and her mom still loved her.

Standing up and walking into her bathroom, Buffy pressed the top of the handy opening in the crotch of her bondage-swim-suit which caused her suit to open so she could use the toilet without having to take the suit off. There was another thing she told herself; since the shower from hell when she and Cordy had first arrived, none of her body hair even looked as if it might grow back any time soon, perhaps she was stuck like this forever. Standing up she closed the opening in her suit as the toilet flushed itself automatically, going over to the hand basin she washed her hands.

“Tona?” Buffy called as she looked in the mirror over the basin and pulled her hair back into a pony tail, “what's happened to Cordy, I've not seen her for...well since, y'know, Lars.”

“The Thrall Cordelia,” Tona replied in her usual precise manner, “has been put on other duties.”

“Other duties?” Buffy asked suspiciously, “What other duties and wasn't she going to be punished for trying to stop Lars...” Buffy felt slightly sick to her stomach when she thought about what Lars had been doing to Cordelia, “...y'know?”

“It was decided that the Thrall Cordelia would not be punished after all and that the death of Lars would be dealt with in another way.”

“In what way?” Buffy asked as she walked out into the main part of the cell.

“I do not know,” Tona replied with a shrug, “however, I do know that your friend the Thrall Cordelia...”

“I wish you wouldn't call her that,” Buffy walked over to the cell door indicating she was ready to leave, “her name's Cordy not, 'the Thrall Cordelia',” Buffy successfully mimicked Tona's voice making the young woman smile.

“As I was saying,” Tona joined Buffy by the gate and opened the bars with her little silver disc, “the Thra...apologies,” Tina nodded to Buffy, “ _Cordy_ is well and being cared for, if you like I can arrange a meeting with her for you.”

“You could!?” Buffy stopped and turned a bright smile on Tona, “If you could that would be totally fantastic, I've been _so_ worried about what's happened to her.”

“You feel affection for...Cordy?” Tona looked slightly sad when she asked the question, “You are _friends_?”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded as they walked along the corridor together, it was then she noticed the sad look on Tona's face, “Of course,” Buffy added quickly, “I think you're my friend too.”

“That is good,” Tona brightened visibly, “I also think of you as a friend, Buffy...but I will still have to try and kill you if we are ever matched against each other.”

“Of course,” Buffy sighed, “What are friends for, if its not to try and kill each other, right?”

0=0=0=0

Arriving at the training grounds, Buffy immediately noticed that there was something strange going on; like all prisoners everywhere, Buffy had soon realised that 'different' didn't usually end with hugs and puppies. Standing in the middle of the training yard was Golt, who Buffy hadn't seen since her first day on Triskelion, but what was more worrying where the six huge Cyclops guys who were standing just behind Golt in an over muscled block of really unpleasant monsters. The Cyclops were the only inhabitants of Triskelion that Buffy was worried about. While all the other Thralls were strong, like human strong, the Cyclops' were vamp strong. One or two she could deal with, but six? No way.

“The Thrall Buffy will step forward,” Golt ordered in his weird echoy voice.

Glancing over at Tona, Buffy silently asked what the hell was going on. Tona shrugged her ignorance and jerked her head in Golt's direction indicating the Buffy should do as she was told. Taking a couple of hesitant steps toward Golt, Buffy stopped about six feet in front of him.

“The Thrall Buffy,” Golt continued his eyes glowing slightly as they bored into her, “you stand accused of the unsanctioned killing of the Thrall Lars.”

“WHAT!?” Buffy turned desperately to look at Tona, the young woman looked as shocked as Buffy did.

“You deny the charge?” Golt echoed.

“Erm...” for a moment Buffy was at a loss as to what to say, but her confusion didn't last long, “...damn straight I do!” thinking quickly she spoke before Golt could say anything more, “It was a fair fight and I won and I thought that was the reason I'd been brought here, to fight and kill!”

“You killed Lars in a training bout not a sanctioned duel,” Golt explained dispassionately, “while you are new and probably do not fully understand these things the fact remains that Lars is dead and his Provider has lost a valuable Thrall...there must be compensation made to the Provider who owned Lars.”

“Hey that's...!” Buffy found she couldn't move or speak as Golt's eyes flashed at her, damn she thought, another ability of the collar of obedience that she'd not even guessed at.

“Bind her,” Golt gestured with his hand and two Cyclops came forward to stand either side of Buffy, one of them was carrying a set of heavy shackles in his hand.

Feeling her arms being pulled roughly behind her, Buffy started to feel very scared when her hands were secured behind her back. Once the Cyclops were happy that Buffy couldn't free her hands the two creatures retreated to the edge of the fighting area as did the other Cyclops and Tona leaving only Golt standing in front of her.

“It has been decided that the Thrall Buffy will be punished for the death of Lars,” Golt announced to some unseen audience, “The punishment interval will continue for one time period or until the Thrall Buffy is killed or she has killed the Thrall Atsal.”

A particularly large Cyclops clutching a bullwhip in his huge hands stepped forward and smiled evilly at Buffy. This was a Cyclops that obviously enjoyed his work, Buffy told herself.

“The rules of the punishment are thus,” Golt intoned while Buffy wondered at the idea of rules for punishments. “Atsal will strike at Buffy using only his whip. The Thrall Buffy may dodge and attempt to strike Atsal with any part of her body. If the Thrall Buffy deliberately steps outside the fighting area the time elapsed will be reset to zero and the punishment will start again from the beginning. If the Thrall Atsal is disabled he will be replaced by a fresh Thrall.”

Buffy felt herself being released from whatever power had held her immobile, she stumbled forward half a step but quickly caught herself.

“Does the Thrall Buffy understand the rules?” Golt asked showing no emotion.

“Erm, hey...” Buffy looked around in panic, “...this all seems a little unfair...” she tried to break her bonds; but like everything else on this god forsaken planet, the shackles appeared to be made out of the same unbreakable metal as her collar. “He's twice my size and he's got that whip and...”

“You are not supposed to survive,” Golt explained as if to a very stupid child, “You are to die slowly and painfully and be an example to any Thralls that might start to think inappropriately.”

“Supposed to die am I?” Buffy called to Golt's retreating back, before adding much more quietly, “we'll see about that.”

There was a loud 'crack!' followed by a scream of surprise and pain from Buffy as Atsal's whip cut through the air and caught her on her left shoulder blade. Diving for the floor, Buffy rolled in an attempt to avoid Atsal's next attack. Bouncing to her feet Buffy was just in time to receive another strike from the whip, this time it caught her across the stomach cutting through the material of her silver swimsuit and leaving an angry red welt across her skin.

Jumping backwards Buffy managed to dodge Atsal's next attack and for a moment the two protagonists circled each other warily. Buffy quickly realised that all Atsal needed to do was keep her at a distance while he weakened her until he would be able to move in and beat her to death. What she needed to do was to knock him off balance enough so that maybe she could kill him.

The whip flashed across the fighting area towards Buffy as she tried to jump out of the way; she screamed as the whip caught the backs of her thighs. Determined to strike back Buffy ran at the Cyclops and launched a flying drop kick at the creature. Buffy's booted heels struck Atsal in the chest almost knocking him back on his butt. However, he recovered as Buffy rolled away and was able to get in another hit on her back before either of them had fully regained their feet.

Standing up and dodging from side to side as she tried to make herself a hard target, Buffy reviewed the fight up until this point. To an outside observer it would look like she was losing...actually to Buffy it felt like she was losing too. She'd been hit several times while only succeeding in almost knocking her opponent down once. Things needed to change and change soon.

Catching movement out of the corner of her eye Buffy attempted to duck under the whip as it came towards her head. Obviously the drop kick to the chest had worried Atsal and he was trying to blind her with a cut across her eyes. The whip cracked above her head as Buffy ducked and charged towards the Cyclops. Not expecting a counter-attack, Atsal was still recovering his whip when Buffy head butted him in the stomach. The air rushed from Atsal's lungs as he doubled over in pain. Jerking her head up, Buffy caught Atsal's chin with the back of her head. Stunned by her own attack Buffy staggered but still managed to lash out with a foot striking Atsal on the shin, she'd been aiming for his knee but as she was seeing double she felt quite proud that she'd managed to hit any thing.

Hoping on one leg, Atsal roared in a mixture of pain and anger, pulling back his arm he sent his whip snaking through the air. In an attempt to make her keep her distance. Buffy jerked her head backwards as she automatically tried to keep her balance. Miscalculating the trajectory of the whip, Buffy screamed in pain as she received the full force of the whip attack across both her breasts. Falling to the fall she rolled into a ball around her aching boobs.

Sensing that he'd inflicted a major hit, Atsal advanced on the downed slayer smiling at his apparent victory, this had been easier than he'd expected. As soon as Buffy sensed that the creature was standing over her she struck out with her feet. Her left foot caught Atsal behind his ankle making it almost impossible for him to step back with that leg. Before Atsal truly appreciated his full danger, Buffy used her right foot and smashed it into the knee joint of Atsal's trapped leg.

Making a strangely high pitched screaming sound, Atsal fell to his injured knee which drew an even louder scream from his lips as it made contact with the surface of the training area. Spinning herself around on her hip Buffy lined herself up for her next attack. Again she lashed out with her feet smashing the soles of her boots into Atsal's face. Feeling bone breaking under her feet as blood flew in all directions from Atsal's ruined face, Buffy watched in satisfaction as Atsal collapsed to the ground and lay there unconscious as he breathed raggedly through his bloodied mouth and nose.

“Buffy!” Tona's voice came to Buffy's ears, “You have to kill him or they will just replace him and the punishment will continue.”

Of course, Buffy remembered what Golt had said, Atsal had to die or another Thrall would be set to beating her to death, deep down Buffy knew that she could only soak up so much punishment. If Atsal didn't die then she would, the choice was simple and it wasn't as if he was even human.

Wriggling closer to Atsal, Buffy wrapped both of her legs around his neck. Locking her ankles together, Buffy straightened her legs and tensed her muscles. Atsal struggled for a moment as he realised what was happening. There was a quiet snapping sound as Buffy broke Atsal's neck and the Cyclops lay still.

“Hold!” Golt advanced across the fighting area to where Buffy lay with her legs still wrapped around Atsal's neck, “The Thrall Buffy has survived the punishment and the complaint against her has been settled for now and always,” Golt looked around at Tona, “Thrall Tona take you trainee back to her quarters and tend to her wounds.”

Rushing over to Buffy, Tona knelt down beside her and quickly used her key to release her from her bonds. After helping Buffy to her feet, Tona guided her towards the tunnel that led back to Buffy's cell.

“You did well,” Tona told Buffy as she held her in her arms, “You are now worth even more to your Provider.”

“Great,” Buffy sighed as she tried to ignore the pain from her beating, “that's just what a girl likes to hear after she's been whipped by a Cyclops.”

0=0=0=0


	15. Chapter 15

15.

**Sunnydale.**

It was at about nine thirty the following morning when Willow walked up to the front door of Amy's house; the two young women had agreed to meet early because Amy had promised to try and teach Willow some magic. Raising her hand, Willow knocked on the medieval style front door and waited. As she stood there Willow looked up at Amy's house, it wasn't quite as big as her parent's house, plus it sort of reminded her of the house from the old 'Munsters' show, but in a nicer, well cared for way...and without the thunder and lightning or bats. The door opened without any suggestion of squeaking hinges.

“Hello?” said the woman who'd opened the door.

“Hi,” Willow responded suddenly feeling unaccountably nervous, “Mrs Madison?”

“It's 'Ms' actually,” the woman replied, “but yes...can I help you?”

“I'm Willow...” Willow didn't get to finish what she had to say because Ms Madison interrupted.

“Willow Rosenberg, right?” Ms Madison smiled, “Amy said she was expecting someone, come in, come in!”

Willow found herself being ushered into the hall as Ms Madison closed the door behind her. Looking around Willow didn't notice any cobwebs or ancient torture devices...the resemblance to the Munster house was obviously only external. 

“Amy said one of her friends was coming around this morning,” Ms Madison looked and sounded very pleased to see Willow; Willow watched the woman suspiciously and started to wonder why.

“Amy dear,” Amy's mom called up the stairs, “your friend Willow's here.”

“Okay Mom,” the sound of Amy's voice floated down from upstairs, followed moments later by the sound of her footsteps.

“Hi Willow!” Amy cried obviously happy to see the red-haired girl, “Come on up,” Amy glanced at her mother, “thanks Mom.”

“Nice to have met you, Willow,” Ms Madison patted Willow on her arm before looking up at her daughter, “now play nice girls and try not to wreck the joint.”

“Mom!” Amy replied sounding a little exasperated with her mother, “We're not five you know?”

“That's what I'm worried about, sweetheart,” Ms Madison called over her shoulder as she walked off into another room.

Climbing the stairs Willow was soon standing next to Amy, she was slightly taken aback when the blonde girl kissed her on the cheek.

“Oh I'm so glad you came,” Amy smiled, “we're going to have so much fun together, come on we'll go to my room.”

“We are?” Willow sounded a little unsure of herself, but soon recovered, “like, of course we are,” Willow found herself smiling too, “your mom's nice.”

“Yeah,” Amy replied with a shrug, “I suppose she is....” Amy opened the door to her bedroom, “...here come on in.”

Leading the way into Amy's bedroom, Willow saw a typical teenage girl's bedroom, but somehow it seemed nicer than her own. There was a big, comfy looking bed, the usual shelves with keepsakes ranked upon them, a desk with a computer and finally a bookcase stuffed with big old looking books. Drifting over to the bookshelf, Willow cast her eye over the titles, everything seemed to be about witchcraft.

“That's my reference library,” Amy explained when she saw what Willow was looking at, “everything I know about the craft I've learnt from those books.”

“Wow,” Willow gasped, “you must do a lot of reading.”

“Hey,” again Amy shrugged, “when its something you like it so not a chore.” the girl sighed sadly, “but there's so much more I can't get a handle on just my myself.”

“Oh I can help,” Willow replied brightly, “I'm big with the studying and I'd really like to try out the witch stuff an'all.”

“Cool,” Amy agreed, “but...”

“But?” Willow's face fell at the serious look on Amy's face, maybe she didn't want to try out any magic with her after all.

“Look,” Amy took a deep breath, “I don't want to sound like a bitch or anything, I'll leave that sorta stuff to Cordelia, but...”

“But?” Willow repeated as her mind went through all the worst case scenarios that could possibly explain Amy's sudden hesitation.

“But...” Amy took her courage in both hands, “...that outfit, Willow, do you totally buy your own clothes?”

“What's wrong with it?” Willow looked down at herself, she was wearing her blue denim dungarees with a red, long-sleeved t-shirt, “My mother buys my stuff.”

“A-ha,” Amy crossed her arms under her breasts, “I see...and your mother has had this problem with you looking like the attractive young woman that you totally are for how long?”

“What do you mean?” Willow replied hesitantly as she realised there was an element of truth in what Amy said.

“Its all baggy and shapeless,” Amy explained as she stepped up to Willow and pulled at her shirtsleeve, “part of being a young witch around town is looking hot an' cool.”

“Hot _and_ cool?” Willow frowned, “Is that even possible?”

Looking at Amy's outfit of short, pale pink skirt that showed off her long, honey coloured legs and her white blouse with red roses printed on it, Willow thought Amy looked cute rather than 'cool', but then again she did think Amy looked surprisingly 'hot'.

“Is it me or is it getting hot in here,” Willow mumbled as she ran her finger around the neck of her shirt.

“Your mom has obviously got some issues where you're concerned,” Amy pointed out.

“She has?” Willow wasn't sure what to say.

“Yeah and I'm going to help you get over them,” Amy stood there looking Willow up and down and seemed to be calculating something as she did so, “Okay...” Amy grinned happily, “...strip off down to your underwear!”

“WHAT!?” Willow clutched her shoulder bag to her chest, “I-I mean why?”

“Hey look,” Amy came to stand next to Willow and gestured to the full length mirror on the wall opposite them, “we're more or less the same size and I'm sure I've got some clothes you can borrow...no witch should look all dowdy and mouse-like...like!”

“No,” Willow agreed quietly, “I don't suppose she should...”

Slowly and just a little reluctantly, Willow put down her bag and started to undress while Amy opened one of her closets and started to look through her clothes. Looking over Amy's shoulder, Willow saw that her new friend had so many more clothes than she did and they all looked so much nicer too.

“Now what have we got?” Amy asked herself, “My mom gives me a clothing allowance on the understanding that she has the final veto on anything she thinks is 'age inappropriate'.”

“That's nice,” Willow stepped out of her dungarees and threw them onto Amy's bed and wished that her own mother would trust her to buy her own clothes.

“Sorry but I've not much to suit your colouring,” Amy turned to face Willow again, “so we'll go with a classic...” Amy held out a pair of jeans and a white blouse to Willow, “...skin tight jeans and a simple blouse, oh don't worry they're stretchy ones so they're bound to fit.”

“Okay,” Willow reached for the clothes only to me stopped in her tracks when Amy laughed.

“Willow!” Amy cried in surprise, “That bra, how old are you? Twelve?”

“What?” Willow looked down at her bra wondering what was wrong with it, it was like all her underwear, sensible and comfortable.

“That's _so_ not the bra that a witch should be wearing,” Amy turned and opened a drawer, after searching for a moment she turned back to Willow holding out a lacy, underwired, sexy creation of a bra. “Come on, get that training bra off and put this on.”

“You think I should?” Willow found herself reaching for the bra.

“Oh yeah,” Amy said quietly as she watched Willow's fingertips touch the lacy softness of the bra.

It had been so easy,” Amy congratulated herself as she watched Willow take off her bra and put on the new one; she'd not even had to use magic. Willow must be so lonely and lacking in self confidence and love, it almost made Amy want to cry to think of how alone Willow must feel. But that was all over now, she would give Willow all the love and confidence that she needed to become the strong confident woman that Amy knew Willow could be.

“Here let me help you with that,” Amy said as she saw Willow struggle to adjust the bra.

Standing behind Willow as she adjusted the shoulder straps, Amy had to stop herself from running her hands across that flawless white skin and cupping Willow's breasts in her hands.

“You have beautiful hair,” Amy found herself touching Willow's long red hair to her cheek, it was so silky and sensual against her skin that she couldn't help herself and she kissed Willow shoulder. “Oh god!” Amy jumped away from Willow when she realised that she might have over stepped her bounds, “I'm _soo_ sorry!”

“No, no that's alright,” Willow turned to face Amy; she'd been struggling with her own emotions just now and she couldn't seem to keep her eyes off Amy's breasts and her long smooth legs and... Willow took a deep breath of her own before she asked, “Amy, are you gay?”

“Would it frighten you if I said I was?” Amy asked hoping that Willow wouldn't run away.

“Not as much as I thought it might,” Willow admitted.

“Would you like to...” Amy raised and eyebrow and gestured to her bed, “...you don't have to if you don't want to.”

“We could try it out I suppose,” Willow agreed slowly, “I mean I'm all in favour of experimentation.”

0=0=0=0

Downstairs, Amy's mom stopped watching the morning news as she drank her coffee in the kitchen. Using the remote to turn down the TV's sound she listened carefully. Hearing the sound of girlish giggles from upstairs, she smiled to herself and turned the volume back up. She wouldn't interrupt her daughter and her new friend when they seemed to be getting on so well together.

0=0=0=0

“That was nice,” Willow sighed dreamily as she lay on the bed next to Amy's naked body, “was it nice for you? I mean I feel totally different, you know? Sorta more real...do you feel more real? No I don't suppose you do coz you've probably done it before and do you know that's the first time I've ever had an orgasm while there was someone else in the room but you've probably had loads of orgasms while there was someone else there...I'm talking too much aren't I, should I shut-up now?”

“Only if you want to,” Amy rolled onto her side and let her hand glide over Willow's body, across her breasts, then down over her stomach and down further still until her fingers came to rest in the little tangle of soft red hair between Willow's legs.

“Oh I want to...but...” Willow gasped but then sighed with disappointment, “...but we're supposed to be at Mrs Summers' exhibition at eleven and its gone ten now.”

“Oh shoot,” Amy grumbled, but then she smiled, “you could always come back here afterwards.”

“I could?” Willow asked brightly.

“Yeah,” Amy added with growing excitement, “we can go have something to eat, then come back here and hang out together...maybe do a little magic and then...”

“And then?” Willow asked curious to hear what Amy had in mind.

“Maybe you could sleepover...” Amy asked hopefully, “...my mom won't mind.” 

“In the same bed?” Willow wanted to know all the time hoping Amy would say 'yes'.

“Well you could use the guest room,” Amy replied straight faced.

“OH!” Willow replied disappointedly as she wondered if she'd gone too far too early in their relationship.

“HA!” Amy laughed, “Totally fooled you! Of course in my bed...” Amy rolled off her bed and started to pick up her clothes, “...I wouldn't want it any other way.”

“Oh thank god for that,” Willow gasped in relief, “I thought...”

“Willow you're always welcome,” Amy explained, “to my house, to my love, my friendship and if you like to my bed.”

“Oh my,” Willow felt a tear run down her cheek, “I don't think anyone's ever said anything so nice to me before.”

“Well its true,” Amy paused as she got dressed, “and Willow...”

“Yeah?” Willow dried her eyes on a tissue taken from the box next to Amy's bed.

“You were my first too,” Amy admitted after a moment.

“You sure?” Willow got up off the bed and started to put on her underwear, “Coz you seemed to totally know what you were doing down there.”

“I read a lot,” Amy admitted with a shrug.

“Ah,” Willow nodded her head wisely, “that's what I like, a girl who does her research before starting on a new project!”

0=0=0=0

On their walk to the gallery, Willow noticed that guys were checking her out more than they'd ever done before. At first she thought they were checking out Amy, who Willow thought was way prettier than she was, but, she caught several guys giving her admiring glances and it made her feel all sexy and she slipped her arm through Amy's so she could feel Amy's body against her own. Arriving at Mrs Summers' gallery they walked in to find, Giles and Xander had already arrived.

“Hello, Willow,” Giles nodded pleasantly to Amy, “Amy, glad to see you managed to make it down here too.”

“Yeah,” Willow nodded guiltily; if she'd had her way she'd still be lying naked on Amy's bed right now, “where's Mrs Summers, I should go say hello.”

“Hi guys!” Xander suddenly burst on the scene a plate of snacks in his hand, “You really should try this finger food or whatever they call it, y'know its got absolutely no 'finger' in it! I feel cheated.” Xander appeared to notice Willow's new outfit for the first time, he looked her up and down admiringly, “Cool new look for you Willow.”

“Hi Xander,” Willow sighed, she was finding she couldn't keep feeling angry at him about Buffy's pubic hairs, perhaps she was softening or maybe it was all the nice orgasms she'd had with Amy that was making her feel more forgiving.

“Hi Mr Giles, Xander...” Amy said distractedly as she looked around the exhibit.

“Something wrong sweetie?” Willow asked in a low voice.

“Hmmm,” Amy pulled a face as if she was confused, “I can feel something...”

“Feel something?” Willow looked at her new found girlfriend in concern, “What do you feel Amy, something bad?”

“Yes,” Giles asked more than a little concerned himself, the girl had gone very pale and there were beads of sweat on her forehead, “are you feeling alright?”

“Its...” Amy's eyes roved the room until they became fixed on the statuette of the 'rude' fertility god standing on its own plinth a few yards away. “It's...it's that,” Amy pointed.

“That statue?” Giles looked at the primitive totem, “What about it?”

“I can feel the same traces of magic that I did when I was outside Mrs Summers' house,” Amy explained as she walked determinedly towards the statue.

“You do?” Giles rushed after Amy followed closely by Willow and Xander.

“Yes definitely,” Amy said with her eyes riveted to the African god.

“Wow!” Xander stopped, a snack frozen half way to his mouth as he saw the size of the rude god's 'member'.

“Jeepers!” Willow said very quietly while she thanked her lucky stars that she was probably gay now and wouldn't have anything like that put inside her, it looked as if it would be _way_ uncomfortable.

“What are you feeling Amy?” Giles asked quietly.

“You mean apart from totally embarrassed and slightly disgusted?” Amy glanced at Giles who nodded, “I feel...”

“Hello Mr Giles,” Joyce's voice drew everyone's eyes away from the African god, “Willow, Xander and...” Joyce looked at Amy, “...I'm sorry dear I don't know your name, are you a friend of Buffy's?”

“Hi I'm Amy,” Amy smiled and held her hand out to Joyce, “I'm a friend of Willow's, I'm sorry but I don't know Buffy more than to say 'hi' to, but I wanted to come and show my support.”

“Oh thank-you Amy,” Joyce took Amy's hand, “That's so sweet of you.”

“Erm, sorry to interrupt, Mrs Summers,” Giles interrupted hesitantly, “but I'm wondering about this statue...its a fertility god, yes?”

“Oh that thing,” Joyce gave a brittle laugh, “I didn't want to put it on display but my partners insisted I should...it's incredibly old...”

0=0=0=0

The statue was indeed very old. When the alien probe had landed on Earth several thousands of years ago it had been programmed to disguise itself so it would pass unnoticed amongst the primitive sentient life forms that inhabited the planet. Centuries had passed and the probe had taken on many forms until one day something went wrong and it was stuck in this present form of a 'rude' fertility statue. However it kept scanning trying to find new Thralls for the Providers, it had been particularly unsuccessful until it happen to scan Buffy Summers. For a simple humanoid, female all Buffy's readings had been off the scale and the probe's systems had been hit by the cybernetic equivalent of a stroke.

This meant it wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders when it scanned the humans that were clustered around it now. The information that the probe was receiving was telling it that it was surrounded by humans who's readings far exceeded even those of Buffy Summers. Quickly the probe contacted Triskelion. Messages flashed between the probe and planet at the speed of thought which far exceeded the speed of mere light. The capacitors that powered the planet's transporters were fully charged, there was more than enough power to transport the five humanoids surrounding the probe to the planet. The probe launched five insect drones that would settle on it's targets and transmit data back to the probe so it could accurately transport the specimens.

0=0=0=0

Listening with half an ear, Xander took a swipe at the large bee like insect that buzzed around his head. Almost dropping his plate of snacks, he didn't notice the insect when it landed on his shirt. He did however notice the bright flash of light and the unpleasant lurching feeling in the pit of his stomach before he found himself lying on some hard smooth blue-grey material. Next he heard several gasps of surprise and sensed the presence of several other bodies lying on the ground next to him, he recognised Mrs Summers' voice in amongst the exclamations of surprise.

“What? Where? How?” Mrs Summers gasped; as far as Xander was concerned these where three very good questions so he was surprised to hear the next word to come out of Mrs Summers' mouth.

“Buffy!?”

0=0=0=0


	16. Chapter 16

16.

**Triskelion.**

The light level in Buffy's cell rose until she woke up and opened her eyes; yawning and stretching luxuriantly under her silky blanket, Buffy smiled lazily and sighed.

“Wow that was intense,” she told herself before adding, “and oh so freakin' vivid!”

Waking from yet another 'sex dream', Buffy started to wonder if the Providers were putting something in her food. Before being kidnapped she'd had a sex dream about once, maybe twice a month, now she was having them _every_ night! Usually her dream lovers were faceless rather androgynous figures. But once it had been Giles, which was _oh so_ disturbing in so many ways, but last night, well, this morning really, it had been Tona. Lying there Buffy remembered how Tona's hands had felt on her body as they caressed her breasts, her lips on her lips and then...

“Cold shower for you my girl,” Buffy told herself as she sat up and swung her legs out of bed; without conscious thought she touched her nipples which had become erect at her reminiscing about her latest dream, “Oh god!” Buffy moaned as she stood up and rushed for the shower.

Five minutes later Buffy's cold shower had enabled her to get control of her imaginings but it hadn't done much for her stiff nipples. Trying to ignore her body's reactions she dried herself off before brushing and combing her hair and pulling it back into a pony-tail. As she worked on her hair, Buffy wondered how you got it cut and styled; Tona had _big_ hair, very eighties looking, so there had to be a ladies hairdresser's hidden away somewhere. Finally Buffy put on her much despised bondage-swim-suit, she felt it 'grip' her body and push up her breasts.

“If it wasn't for all the damn buckles...” Buffy muttered angrily, but she didn't get to finish what she was going to say because Tona had arrived with her breakfast. “Hi Tona,” Buffy cried happy to see one of her two friends on this weird world, “I...” Buffy suddenly realised that Tona wasn't wearing her usual bondage-swim-suit, “Wow...you do look...” Buffy struggled for the right word, she went with, “...different.”

Instead of her silver swimming costume (with added buckles), Tona was wearing a deep red tunic-like dress; it was gathered at the waist with a belt in the same material as the dress and it went down to about mid-thigh. There were no sleeves and the neck line while loose wasn't too low cut or overly revealing, it looked...comfortable.

“Morning's greeting, Buffy,” Tona didn't have to tell Buffy to stand away from the gate as Buffy now did so automatically, the gate opened and then closed behind Tona as she came in and put Buffy's breakfast on the table. “I am foolish,” Tona admitted to Buffy.

“No you're not,” Buffy grinned, as she noticed that Tona had another dress over her arm, “but you do look _way_ hot in that dress.” 

“Hot?” Tona frowned for a moment, “Ah, this is one of the times when the word you use means other than its true meaning,” Tona regarded Buffy for a moment before speaking again, “From your expression and the context in which you use the word 'hot', I would guess you think I look attractive.”

“You're learning,” Buffy laughed, she gestured at the red tunic over Tona's arm, “for me?”

“Correct,” Tona handed over the tunic before sitting in her accustomed place, “the reason I call myself foolish is that I forgot to tell you that today is a sixth-day.”

“It is?” Buffy held the tunic-dress up, it was a slightly smaller copy of Tona's, “What's special about a sixth-day?”

“A sixth-day is a rest day,” Tona explained, “there is no fighting or training on a sixth-day.”

“So what do you do on a sixth-day?” Buffy asked as she sat down and started to eat her breakfast, “Go shopping at the local mall, hang out with your buds, maybe go out to the local club?”

“Once again your words are strange to me,” Tona replied straight faced, “but you can walk outside the complex and visit the many ancient wonders near by, or...” Tona looked hopefully at Buffy, “There is a place nearby where you can swim, the water is warm and I like to swim there...would you like to come with me?”

“No mall, huh?” Buffy asked as she scooped up lumps of oatmeal with her fingers, “And no clubs?”

Tona shook her head and thought about asking Buffy what a club was, other than a heavy blunt object used to hit your opponent with in a fight, but she thought better of it, admitting to herself that she probably wouldn't understand the answer, instead she just shook her head.

“Okay then, swimming it is,” Buffy saw Tona's face light up like the sun coming out on a cloudy day.

“Swim suits?” Buffy asked as she licked the last of the oatmeal off her fingers.

“Swim suits?” once again Tona frowned; Buffy thought that there was real danger that the poor young woman would get stuck in a permanent frown.

“Okay,” Buffy sighed as she got up to wash her hands, “skinny dipping it is.”

After washing her hands, Buffy came back into the main part of her cell and started to take off her silver swim suit, a tedious business that took several minutes.

“Now you are vended,” Tona explained as Buffy changed, “you will soon be able to move to the quarters with the other Red Female Fighters.”

“No guys then, like separate dormitories?” Buffy started on the last few buckles.

“Oh no,” Tona sounded scandalised at the very suggestion, “the Providers say its for our own good. If we mixed with the male fighters we might have an unscheduled pregnancy and have to have the unborn child removed from our bodies so we can continue to fight and train.”

“What!?” Buffy froze half way out of her swim-suit, after a moment she sighed sadly and shook her head, “Y'know the more I hear about these Providers the more I really don't like them.”

“But the Providers are just and compassionate” Tona claimed, “they only do these things for the welfare of their Thralls.”

“Where I come from they'd call them...” Buffy tried to think what the Providers would be called back home, but couldn't think of anything suitably damning, “...whatever they'd get called it wouldn't be, 'just and compassionate'.”

“Your home must be a very strange place, with no Providers to care for you,” Tona observed.

Free at last from her silver suit, Buffy held up her new dress and studied it again for a moment.

“I don't suppose there's any sexy red underwear to go with this?” Buffy asked already guessing what the answer would be.

“Sexy?” Once again Tona was frowning, “Underwear?”

“Whatever,” Buffy sighed as she slipped the dress over her head, only to discover it was made of the same material as her blanket, “Oh boy!” she cried as her nipples went instantly hard at the mere touch of her dress, “that's going to be so embarrassing.”

“What is embarrassing?” Tona's eyes dropped to where Buffy's nipples were trying to poke right through her dress, “You have good breasts and nipples, when you are allowed to have a child you will have no difficulty feeding it.”

“Oh great,” Buffy sighed quietly.

“I have another surprise for you?” Tona was once again smiling. 

Unable to resist Tona's sunny disposition, Buffy thought now Tona smiled so easily and was always eager to please. A life time in the service of the Providers had probably made her this way.

“Two surprises,” Buffy found herself stroking her new dress and told herself to stop it, she didn't but did manage to ask, “what have I done to deserve two prizes?”

“Nothing,” Tona shrugged, she'd worked out that she'd never fully understand Buffy and had decided to just go with the flow, “you were entitled to the tunic and you asked me to arrange the other.”

“I did?” it was Buffy's turn to frown.

“Yes you asked if I could arrange a meeting between yourself and the Thrall Cor...I'm sorry,” Tona paused for a moment before correcting herself, “your friend Cordy.”

“You did!” Buffy cried out happily as she bounced across the cell and hugged Tona tightly.

Finding herself pressed firmly against Tona's, firm, shapely body and having the silky material rubbing against her skin, Buffy found her mind going back to the events of her sex dream. Forcing herself to let Tona go, she stepped back a pace and tried to cover her achingly hard nipples with her arms, this only made things worse so she let her arms fall to her sides.

“Thank-you so much, Tona,” Buffy said quietly, “you're a real friend.”

“Come,” Tona went to the door and opened it with her key, “you are to meet Cordy on the fighting ground,” Tona saw the concern in Buffy's eyes at the mention of the word 'fighting', “do not worry it is the last place anyone will be on a sixth-day, that is why I chose it, now hurry!”

0=0=0=0

Coming out into the open from the long passageway, Buffy recognised the fighting area as the place where Cordy and herself had first arrived in or on Triskelion. Although Buffy had long ago worked out that she wasn't on Earth, she wasn't sure if she was on another planet or in one of those different realities that Giles sometimes talked about. Just then she caught sight of Cordy sitting hunched up on one of the stone benches around the fighting triangle. Buffy now had more important things to worry about than where she was.

Walking over to where Cordelia sat hunched over, her knees drawn up under her chin, Buffy tried to check for any signs of further abuse; she could see none, at least none that showed. Sitting down next to her friend, Buffy reached out and touched Cordy's shoulder. The girl instantly tensed and looked up fearfully. Seeing Buffy, Cordelia's face went blank as she stared unseeingly at her.

“Hi Cordy,” Buffy asked softly as she withdrew her hand, “you're looking better...”

Hard though it was to imagine, Cordy did look better; actually it would have been hard to imagine her looking worse than the last time Buffy had seen her. The bruises were fading and the cut lip was healing nicely as were the cuts on her eyebrows and cheeks. It looked like Cordy was being given good care, there certainly didn't seem to be any new signs of abuse. The white tunic that Cordy was wearing looked clean and well looked after, it was very much like the one Buffy was wearing.

“Better?” Cordy replied quietly.

“Erm, yeah...” Buffy didn't know what to say, she was sixteen she shouldn't be having to deal with comforting another sixteen year old who'd been beaten and raped, that's what adults were for!

“Better?” Cordy repeated bitterly, “Yeah well, I suppose I am, I mean I only get raped once a day now, so yeah I suppose I'm _better_!”

“Oh god, Cordy,” Buffy sniffed as her eyes filled with tears, “I'm so sorry, I couldn't...”

“Hey,” Cordy placed her hand on Buffy's shoulder, “look, it's not your fault...”

“Yes it was!” Buffy replied sharply, “I should have fought them and we should have escaped and...”

“And be killed?” Cordy pulled Buffy close and hugged her, “Then what would I do without my very own weird, freaky Buffy Summers to look out for me, huh?”

“Fine friend I am,” Buffy sniffed loudly, “I came to comfort you, not the other way around.”

“Whatever,” Cordelia shrugged, “you came that's what counts.”

“Is it really bad?” Buffy whispered both wanting and not wanting to know.

“Not so much, I work in the kitchens preparing food for you fighters,” Cordy explained, “its totally boring.”

“And...?” morbid fascination got the better of Buffy.

“The rape stuff?” Cordy let go of Buffy and sighed, “Like I say its not so bad, I only have to do it once a day and no one hits me anymore,” unexpectedly Cordy actually smiled, “The guy who does it, he's actually quite gentle and gets it over with as quickly as possible.”

“Oh,” Buffy didn't know what to say, again she was sixteen and she didn't know how to handle this stuff and her mother had never been that forthcoming about the entire forced sex thing; apart from telling her not to go off with weird guys who might offer her candy. “Okay,” there was the big question and Buffy took a deep breath before she asked it, “are you pregnant yet?”

“Probably,” was Cordy's reply, “I can't be sure until I miss my period...no doubt these Provider guys have some of those things you're supposed to pee on to see if you are.” 

“Oh,” Buffy repeated all the time thinking how stupid she must sound saying 'Oh' all the time.

Cordy needed her and she wanted to be there for Cordy but she didn't know what the right thing to say or do was; she only knew how to hit things really, really hard and it looked like the time for hitting things had long past.

“We're not going home are we Buffy?” Cordelia asked quietly.

“I...I don't know,” Buffy replied as she felt her heart break as she realised that she might very well spend the rest of her life here.

The flash of blindingly white light made Buffy's eyes water and it was several moments before she could blink them clear enough to see. In those few moments her ears told her that several people had arrived unexpectedly and had been dumped unceremoniously on the fighting platform. Hearing the cries of surprise, Buffy suddenly realised that she recognised voices; that was Giles, no one could sound that annoyed without shouting and...

“BUFFY!?”

“MOM!?” blinking the tears from her eyes Buffy saw her mother climb to her feet and come towards her, her arms open and a relieved look on her face.

Blinking away her happy-tears, Buffy rushed into her mother's arms and hugged her fiercely.

“Mom, mom, mom!” Buffy repeated as she savoured the touch and smell of her mother and realised just how much she'd missed her.

“Sweetheart,” Joyce cried back, “I'm so glad I've found you I...oh, honey not so tight!” Joyce found herself released from her daughter's bear-like hug, she smiled at Buffy, “when did you get so strong?” A dark cloud passed over Joyce's face, “And don't you think that outfit is a little 'old' for you and what are those marks?” Joyce stepped closer to Buffy and examined the fading whip marks on Buffy's chest, legs and arm, “Oh my god!” Joyce's hand went to her mouth before she enfolded Buffy in her own protective hug, “Someone's been beating you!?”

“I'm fine,” Buffy reassured her mother before gently breaking away, looking around she caught sight of Giles. “GILES!”

“Buffy,” Giles closed in and gave Buffy a fatherly hug.

“We need to talk,” Buffy whispered as Giles was pushed out of the way by Willow.

“Buffy!” tears trickled down Willow's cheek as she too hugged Buffy, “I'm so glad you're alive...”

“Got to tell you, Will,” Buffy quipped, “so am I.”

“Buffy!” Xander elbowed Willow to one side and grabbed hold of Buffy and hugged her just a little too tightly and for a little too long; Buffy looked over Xander's shoulder and raised an eyebrow at her friend.

“Okay, Xander, its nice to see you too,” Buffy smiled, “but you can let go now.”

Freeing herself from Xander's embrace, Buffy turned to the last member of the newly arrived group.

“Amy, right?” Buffy asked.

“Hi,” Amy replied a little self consciously, “glad to have found you.”

Buffy stepped up to the girl and gave her a warm hug before going back to her mother and putting her arm around her waist.

“Okay, you guys,” Buffy smiled happy to have all the people she loved around her again (oh, and Amy who she was sure she'd get to like), “How'd you all get here...wherever here is?”

Sitting on the bench, Cordelia listened to Mr Giles' rather confusing explanation of how they'd all arrived on Triskelion. It was only then that Cordelia noticed what was going on; everyone here had come for _Buffy_. Everyone was happy to see that _Buffy_ was more or less safe and well. No one had come for her, not any of her so-called friends or even her parents. It was getting increasingly obvious to Cordy that no one had been looking for her, no one cared what had happened to her, no one had tried to find _her_. Getting up, Cordelia quietly started to walk away from the happy group of friends, she was alone, she didn't have any friends not even Buffy it would seem.

“Cordy!?” Buffy's voice called from behind her, “Where are you going?” Buffy ran over to her and started to guide her back to the group, “Come and say hi to everyone.”

“Hi..” Cordy said quietly; there was a chorus of reluctant 'Hi's' from Willow, Xander and Amy, Giles said 'Hello' politely enough and Buffy's mom just looked confused.

“Oh come on guys,” Buffy cried out getting just a little annoyed with her friends, “Cordy's been through hell, she's had it way worse than me!”

“What?” Giles said as he took off his glasses and polished them, while the three teens shuffled their feet not knowing what to say.

It was Joyce that broke the silence, she looked at the dark haired girl next to her daughter and realised there was something very badly wrong here. First she noticed the fading bruises and the healing cuts. Next she realised what had happened to the girl and how Buffy obviously cared a great deal for her.

“Oh my!” Joyce gasped as she rushed forward and engulfed Cordelia in a mother's comforting hug, “You poor girl, what did they do to you?”

“Too much Mom,” Buffy answered for Cordy who was too busy crying with relief that someone actually cared about her, “way too much.”

0=0=0=0


	17. Chapter 17

17.

**Triskelion.**

“They won't do anything bad to us will they, Ms Summers?” Amy asked tearfully; Joyce, Amy and Willow were sitting on the bed of the cell where they'd been locked up.

“I'm sure everything will work out fine,” Joyce replied with all the confidence she could muster, she put her arms around the girls either side of her and tried to comfort them while at the same time wishing some one was there to comfort her.

The truth of the matter was that right at this moment, Joyce wasn't sure of anything. It was all so confusing; first she remembered being in the gallery talking to Mr Giles about that damn fertility statue. The next thing she knew she'd been transported to a place with three suns and a lot of very unpleasant men with only one eye each, they'd locked the two girls and herself up in this cell.

Joyce had been so overjoyed to see Buffy alive and more or less well. Yes it looked like someone had beaten and abused her little girl, but that was infinitely better better than finding out Buffy was dead. Scars mental and physical could be healed, death couldn't. At least whoever had abused her daughter hadn't done whatever they'd done to that poor Cordelia girl. She was pretty sure that the dark haired girl had been raped, probably several times, plus there'd been all those bruises. Looking at Amy and Willow, Joyce wondered what would become of them? Would someone come for them and beat and rape them; and what would happen to her? It was all very worrying, for herself, Joyce felt she could deal with whatever happen, but the girls...

Thinking back to the moment she'd seen Buffy, Joyce thought about what had happened just afterwards. It was the look Buffy had given Mr Giles that was making her think. The hug Buffy had given the librarian and the way she'd whispered in his ear; there was something more there than a teacher pupil relationship... After a moment Joyce dismissed the idea that Mr Giles might have been having an inappropriate relationship with her daughter. The hug that Mr Giles had given Buffy and the look of total relief on his face when he saw she was alive, that was more the look a father might give on finding his lost child. Of course he'd tried to hide it but she'd seen the love in his eyes for her daughter. If they ever got out of this mess, Joyce promised herself that she was going to take a lot more interest in what her daughter did and who she talked to.

There was also something about Buffy that she'd not noticed before, she seemed very 'in charge', at one point she'd even appeared to be telling Mr Giles what to do. Buffy had said not to fight, that the strange one-eyed creatures and that unpleasant man in the black cloak would kill them if they did. For a moment Joyce wondered if it had been the man in the black cloak who'd beaten her daughter and raped Cordelia, if he was then he would suffer for it even if it meant her own death.

0=0=0=0

Sitting on the bed next to Joyce Summers, Willow felt hot and panicky and she was sure she was going to throw up any moment now. Jumping down from the bed, she rushed into the little bathroom built into the corner of the cell. Resting her hands on the edge wash basin she dry heaved a couple of times, nothing came up except some evil tasting brown bile.

“Are you alright in there Willow?” Joyce called out.

“I...I'm fine Ms Summers,” Willow called back, quickly she worked out how the tap worked and got it to dispense some water into her cupped hands.  
After washing out her mouth, Willow drank a little water and started to feel better, not that she thought she'd ever feel one-hundred percent better, but she felt a little better and maybe she could think of a way out of this situation. After all being locked in a cell by one-eyed refugees from a fifties horror film couldn't end well. Coming out of the bathroom, Willow looked at Ms Summers and Amy.

“We've got to escape,” Willow announced with grim faced determination.

“Do you think we should?” Joyce asked, to be honest she could see the pros and cons of breaking out of their jail but couldn't decide between them.

“Are you having fun here?” Willow wanted to know while deep inside her, little scared Willow wanted to run and hide in the bathroom.

“No,” Joyce had come to a decision, they needed to get out of here; there was something _very_ strange going on here and she'd feel a lot better if they were all very far away from here, wherever _here_ was. “Alright Willow, how do you suggest we get ourselves out of this cell?”

“I don't know,” Willow admitted, “I'm sorta open to suggestions,” Willow looked at Amy, “Amy you got any ideas?”

“I don't know,” Amy wiped her face with the towel she'd found lying on the bed, “I suppose I could try a door opening spell.”

“A door opening spell?” Joyce turned to look at Amy in concern; it was fairly obvious that Willow's friend was deeply disturbed.

“You can do that?” Willow asked hopefully.

“Maybe,” Amy shrugged as she jumped down from the bed and walked over to the barred gate.

“Do you need anything to make the magic work?” Willow had gone from being fairly sceptical about magic to a full believer in a couple of days; she wondered how much of that was due to her new feelings towards Amy or was it just desperation because she wanted to get out of this prison.

“No I just need a little quiet so I can remember the spell,” Amy whispered as she closed her eyes and concentrated.

Sitting on the bed Joyce found herself keeping very quiet. Although she new that spells and magic were all just folk-tales, Amy seemed so sure that Joyce couldn't help but remain silent. Watching Amy's lips move as she repeated the spell, Willow willed the magic to work. Looking at the gate she saw that it hadn't moved, okay maybe try again.

“Amy,” Willow said as calmly as she knew how, “lets try that again, huh?”

“Okay,” Amy took a deep breath and then looked at Willow and smiled as she felt Willow's hand slip into her own.

This time when Amy said the spell she felt a surge of power go through her body like she'd never felt before. As she repeated the spell she saw the gate start to vibrate, the vibrations slowly turned into a violent shaking, but still the gate wouldn't open.

“Its no good,” Amy panted as she let go of Willow's hand and stumbled back to sit on the bed, “I can't open it, we're trapped here forever!”

0=0=0=0

“Right...” Giles took a firm grip on the bars of the gate, “...heave!”

Both Giles and Xander heaved at the gate trying to get it open, it soon became obvious that the gate wasn't going to move.

“Okay,” Xander stepped away from bars and dusted off his hands, “any other suggestions from the Book of Great Escapes there Giles?”

“Erm...” Giles stood back to study the problem from a distance, “...not so you'd notice, no.”

“Hey,” Xander turned towards Giles, “Weren't you British guys always escaping from German Stalaglufts?”

“Well yes,” Giles shrugged, “but it seems the 'escape gene' has jumped a generation in my case.”

“Just my luck,” Xander sulked as he sat down on the bed.

“What's that?” Giles asked giving his glasses a quick polish as he did so.

“Just my luck to be trapped in a cell with the only Brit who doesn't instinctively know how to break out of jail,” Xander had had his illusions well and truly shattered.

“I suppose if we had a spoon or something we could start tunnelling our way out,” Giles replied with more than a little sarcasm, “or perhaps we could build one of those vaulting horse things.”

“What!?” Xander wailed, “We have to do gym class as well?”

0=0=0=0

Leaning against the bars of the cell, Willow idly ran her finger along the place where the two parts of the gate met. There was something odd about this gate but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Suddenly her moving finger stopped and she shifted so she could look closely at the bars, yes she'd been right there was something very odd going on here. Looking very closely at the bars she saw that the gate wasn't actually two separate pieces of metal, it was almost as if the two parts had fused into one.

“Amy,” she called the blonde girl over urgently, “come look at this.”

“What?” Amy asked as she walked over to see what Willow was pointing at.

“Look,” Willow said with growing excitement, “when we were thrown in here the gate opened and closed an it was in two parts, right?”

“Uh-huh,” Amy nodded unsure what Willow was getting at.

“Well,” Willow grinned, “there should be a crack here where the gates touch.”

“So?” Amy still didn't see where Willow was going with this.

“There's no crack!” Willow announced triumphantly, “So the gate's one piece of metal not two!”

“And this helps us how?” Amy wanted to know.

“Oh...” Willow's face fell as she realised she'd got all excited over nothing, “...nowhere...” a memory surfaced at the back of her mind, “...memory metal!”

“Memory metal?” Amy looked at Willow as if she'd gone insane.

“Look,” Willow began breathlessly, “memory metals remembers the shape it used to be and will always try to go back to its original shape, at least that's what I think it said in the magazine.”

“So?” Amy said with more encouragement than she actually felt.

“This means that if we can get the metal to sorta forget that its a gate we might me able to get out of here!” Willow's words almost tripped over themselves in their hurry to be spoken.

“But...” Amy was about to point out that it was impossible, but stopped herself; after all didn't she dabble her toes in the impossible almost everyday.

“Do you know any forgetting spells?” Willow asked hopefully.

“Yeah,” Amy replied cautiously, “but I need a special type of bramble flower and a piece of clear crystal.”

“But that's to make humans forget, right?” Willow asked hopefully.

“Well yeah,” Amy shrugged, “I suppose.”

“So we probably won't need them for a metal gate, right?” Willow smiled brightly.

“We could give it a try I suppose,” Amy shrugged, “and if you hold my hand like before, that seems to give my magic a boast.”

“Okay,” Willow said with breathless excitement, “lets...”

“What are you two girls whispering about over there,” Joyce called.

“It's alright Ms Summers,” Amy turned he head to look at the woman, “Willow's thought of a way of getting us out.”

“More spells I suppose,” Joyce replied wondering where girls got their ideas from these days.

0=0=0=0

“Tona!” Buffy cried happily as the young woman came into her cell, “What's going on, do you know where my friends are?”

“The entire Complex is in confusion,” Tona explained, “no one knows where your friends came from, there's a rumour that the great machines that run Triskelion made a mistake, but that is impossible.”

“Okay, yeah,” Buffy needed to know where everyone was and that they were alright, “but my friends?”

“Yes,” Tona nodded, “your friends...” Tona frowned, “...these are your 'Mom', 'Giles' and 'friends' that you spoke of?”

“Yes!” Buffy almost stamped her foot in frustration.

“Which is your Mom?” Tona asked straight faced.

“TONA!?” Buffy screamed.

“Sorry,” Tona seemed unsurprised by Buffy's sudden outburst, “They are in cells on the other side of the circle.”

“The circle?” Buffy wondered if Tona was being deliberately cryptic.

“All these cells as you call them,” Tona explained calmly, “are off shoots of a large circular corridor your friends are almost directly opposite to this cell.”

“Right I see,” Buffy calmed herself down; now she knew where everyone was, what was she going to do about it?

When the Cyclops' had grabbed every one, Buffy hadn't even tried to resist, she knew that if she had Golt would have just done his glowy eye thing and she'd be screaming in agony on the floor again. So she'd done nothing, telling herself to bide her time, that maybe she'd be able to escape later. But look where that had got her? It had got herself whipped, it had got Cordy raped and it had got her Mom and her friends locked up. This was what waiting for the right moment had got her, it was becoming very plain to her that waiting for the prefect opportunity would end with her either dead or having loads of babies for the Providers.

“Tona,” Buffy walked over to her friend, she didn't like what she was going to do, but... “I'm sorry.”

“Sorry?” Tona had just enough time to frown in confusion before Buffy hit her.

“I'm really sorry,” Buffy caught the unconscious girl and laid her down gently on her bed.

Quickly, Buffy found Tona's key and agoniser, not having anywhere to put them because she was still wearing her sexy, red tunic, Buffy held them both in her hand as she advanced on the gate to the cell. Pacing the key over her name plate, Buffy stepped back as the gate slid open. Stepping out into the corridor she watched as the gate closed behind her. Looking up and down the passage way, Buffy wished she'd asked Tona which way was the quickest direction to get to her friends. Never mind, she told herself, it didn't matter she could run pretty fast.

0=0=0=0

“Wow,” said Willow as she looked down at the pool of memory metal at her feet.

“Yeah,” Amy gave a little gasp, “how about that?”

“What's going...” the words stuck in Joyce's mouth when she saw the large silver puddle, she looked suspiciously at the two teenagers, “What did you do?” Joyce waved her arm through the gap where the bars had been just to convince herself they were really gone, “That was magic wasn't it?”

“Erm...yeah,” Amy nodded her head and saw the look of fear on Ms Summers' face, “It's all right, Ms Summers, I'm a good witch.”

“W-w-witch?” Joyce stammered.

“Yeah,” Willow added proudly, “Amy made the metal forget what it was and POW!”

“Pow?” Joyce was having difficulty processing all this, she really needed to have a long talk to Buffy and maybe that Mr Giles.

“Come on,” Willow skipped over the puddle of congealed metal, “we better get outta here before someone comes.”

0=0=0=0

Eyes tightly shut, Cordy lay on her back with her legs open, she tried to tell herself that if she thought really hard she could almost forget about the guy between her legs who was busy raping her. Was rape really the right word? Whatever, the guy who was sent to impregnated her every day didn't hit her and he was gentle and got the whole messy business over with as quickly as possible.

Taking the knife that she'd stolen from the kitchen from under her mattress she almost felt guilty about sticking it between her rapist's ribs. It wasn't his fault, he was as much a victim of the Providers as she was, but she had to do it; she had to escape even if she died in the attempt. The guy gasped as he felt Cordy's knife slide between his ribs and into his chest. Cordy thought it odd how he still ejaculated into her even as he died.

Pushing the dead man off her, Cordy got up and quickly put on her tunic making sure that she didn't get any blood on it. Searching the guys clothes, she found his key and his obedience collar remote control unit. Clutching the three objects in her hands she opened the door to her cell. Stepping outside she was free, but for how long?

0=0=0=0


	18. Chapter 18

18.

**Triskelion.**

“Cordy!” Buffy cried happily as she saw her friend appear from out of a side tunnel.

“Buffy!” Cordy gasped with relief as she moved to hug Buffy her bloodied knife still in her hand.

“Hey!” Buffy looked warily at the knife in Cordelia's bloody hand, “What's going on?”

“I had to...” Cordy suddenly found it difficult to explain what she'd done; it had seemed so simple at the time but now she wasn't so sure, might there not have been a better way?

“Never mind,” Buffy saw the look of pain and confusion on Cordelia's face and rushed over to the girl and embraced her, “we'll deal with that later, right now I'm just glad to see you okay, okay?”

Holding on to Buffy, Cordelia felt her fears start to fade away, if Buffy had broken out everything would be alright again, wouldn't it?

“Touching though this reunion is,” Buffy smiled as she let go of Cordelia, “we've gotta find my Mom and the others.

“Okay,” Cordy took a deep breath, time to be strong she told herself, “where are they?”

“Along here, I think,” Buffy gestured along the corridor.

“Okay then,” Cordelia forced herself to smile when all she really wanted to do was cry, “What are you waiting for.”

Together the two young women trotted off down the corridor. They'd only run on a dozen or so yards when they heard Giles' familiar voice calling from a cell a little further down the passageway.

“Buffy!” Giles cried as Buffy and Cordelia came to a halt outside his cell, “and of course Miss Chase...”

“Buffster!”Xander cried happy to see Buffy and even happier to see she was still wearing that sexy, red, clingy and oh so short tunic thing with no underwear; he noticed Cordy and added with significantly less enthusiasm, “Oh hi Cordy.”

“I can't open this gate thing,” Giles gestured to bars, “Please tell you've got a key.”

“Yeah, hold on,” Buffy silently cursed her lack of pockets or indeed some sort of handbag as she juggled the objects in her hands until she had the key held in her right hand; stepping forward she pressed the key against the lock; nothing happened, “Darn!”

“What's wrong?” Giles asked urgently.

“This darn key doesn't work,” Buffy cried in frustration, “they must be keyed individually for each door.”

“Someone's coming,” Cordy turned to face the sound of oncoming footsteps, her knife out and ready for use.

“MOM!” Buffy cried overjoyed to see her mother run along the passageway towards her, “Willow! Amy! Thank god you're safe, how did you get out of your cell?”

“Erm...” Joyce wrapped her daughter in a relieved embrace, “...Amy and Willow did something to the metal...they made it forget it was metal or something...do you think we can go home now so I can have a proper nervous breakdown?”

“We'll do our best,” Buffy smiled at her mother as she turned to Willow and Amy, “You guys did something to the bars?”

“Yeah,” Willow replied breathlessly, “you know Amy's totally a witch, but a good one and anyway I worked out that the bars where made of memory metal and Amy knows this spell that makes things forget and she said it totally wouldn't work without some bramble and like a crystal but it did so here we are!”

“Huh?” Buffy asked, “Erm, that's great Will but can she open Giles and Xander's cell?”

“If Willow helps,” Amy stepped forward; Buffy noticed how tired the girl looked.

“Okay, magic?” Buffy said uncertainly, adding quietly, “I'll try anything once.”

“Okay,” Amy stepped towards the bars, “everyone who isn't Willow better stand back.”

Taking hold of Willow's hand in one of her own, Amy held her free hand up to the bars but didn't tough them. Taking a couple of long slow breaths, Amy started to recite her spell. A lot of it sounded like mumbo-jumbo to Buffy until Amy paused and repeated the words 'Tabula Rasa' three times. One the third repartition the bars to the cell seemed to shimmer before turning into silver water and losing there shape. The next thing Buffy saw was a large pool of silver liquid metal on the floor. Rushing forward to help Willow catch Amy as she slumped towards the floor, Buffy pulled both her friends to the opposite wall and helped Amy sit down.

“Giles, Xander,” Willow called as she crouched next to Amy, “you'll have to jump over the metal its pretty hot.”

“I don't suppose there's any way she can get these collars off?” Buffy asked quietly as she knelt down next to Amy; the witch looked completely drained.

“No,” Willow shook her head, “first Amy's too drained; second, when the bars melt they get real hot, you'd get burnt...badly.”

“Oh well,” Buffy shrugged resignedly, “We'll manage as is...” Buffy stood up and turned to her friends, “...okay we've got to get outta here before anyone notices we're gone. Mom,” Buffy turned to her mother, “can you help Willow with Amy, Cordy,” Buffy turned to the cheerleader with the bloody kitchen knife, “you're armed, guard Mom, Willow and Amy for me,” Buffy next turned towards Giles and Xander, “Guys bring up the rear and watch our backs,” Buffy noticed the way Xander was looking at her legs, “Xander, by watching our rear I didn't mean you should watch _my_ rear!”

“Don't worry,” Giles replied, “I'll keep him on the straight and narrow.”

“Okay...” Buffy was just about to explain that she'd take the lead when her mother spoke.

“Buffy!” Joyce looked at her daughter not really recognising her as the slightly scatter-brained girl she knew and loved, “Don't you think you should let Mr Giles decide what to do?”

“Mom!” Buffy walked over to her mother and held her at arms length while looking earnestly into her eyes, “Just this once I need you to do what I tell you to...” Buffy looked pleadingly at her mom, “...Pleeez? I'll explain everything later, like when we're out of danger.”

“Please, Mrs Summers,” Giles stepped into the conversation, “its best to do as Buffy says for now, I promise I'll explain everything as soon as we're all safe.”

“Well...” Joyce replied uncertainly, “...if you think we should?”

“We should,” Giles smiled reassuringly.

“Okay people lets move it!” Buffy turned and started off down the corridor.

0=0=0=0

Turning one final corner, Buffy lead her friends out onto the fighting ground where everyone had first arrived on Triskelion.

“Over here,” Buffy pointed to the railings that divided this part of the complex from the outside world, “we'll have to climb over those railing and then get as far away from here as possible!”

Turning towards the railings and thinking that she'd probably have to help just about everyone climb them, Buffy was brought up short when Golt suddenly appeared before her his eyes glowing whitely. Abruptly Buffy found herself writhing on the ground as she screamed from the pain that ripped through her body.

“Only a reminder this time Thrall Buffy,” explained the deep echoy voice from the sky.

Buffy pushed herself to her feet and then turned to Cordy and helped her stand up.

“You Earth people are most unusual, most stimulating,” mused the voice, “Each group had the chance to escape by themselves yet each group independently decided to go back and help the others, this is...interesting.”

“Yeah,” Buffy gasped as she recovered from her latest experience of the collar of obedience, “we're funny about going back to help our friends.”

“What...?” Giles stepped forward to help Buffy with Cordelia.

“What you're hearing, people, is a Provider,” Buffy explained.

“We are know to the Thralls as Providers because we provide for all their needs,” the Provider explained, “the term is easier for their limited mental abilities to comprehend.”

“Providing for all there needs,” Buffy added bitterly, “means using Thralls...people who've been kidnapped from their homes to fight each other while the Providers gamble on who'll win,” Buffy paused for only a moment, “But these Providers haven't got the courage to show themselves.”

“Your species has great curiosity,” the Provider replied, “we knew that, you are interesting in many ways.”

“But you're afraid,” Buffy called then adding a little more quietly, “and just a little icky making all the girls dress in revealing outfits.”

“You represent no danger while you wear the collar,” the Provider announced haughtily, “and you will wear it for as long as you live.”

“Then show yourselves,” Buffy taunted the Provider, “if I'm not that scary why don't you come on down and let us see what you really look like?”

“There is no objection!” said the voice.

In the blink of an eye, Buffy found herself in a large underground cavern.

“Ewww!” she gasped at her first sight of the Providers, “Talking brains!?”

In front of her was a large glass or plastic dome containing four squidgy looking brains, each about the size of a football and each in its own colour, red, blue, yellow and green. The same colours as the Thrall factions in fact. Before the brains even spoke, Buffy was calculating whether she could break into the dome and squeeze the brains to death.

“We are one-thousand of your metres beneath the surface of Triskelion,” one of the brains announced proudly.

“I say again,” Buffy felt a shiver of disgust course down her back, “Ewww, talking brains!”

“No,” said another more high pitched talking brain, “once we had human form not unlike yourselves...”

“I guess that explains the revealing outfits,” Buffy muttered.

“...but we evolved beyond the need for bodies.”

“After eons of dedicating ourselves to purely mental pursuits,” said yet a third voice, “we were able to cast off our more human looking form and become the physically simple, but mentally superior being you see before you.”

“But you still felt the need to dress all the women in sexy outfits,” Buffy sneered, “I'm betting you were all guys once, I'm right aren't I? I mean getting girls to dress up in skimpy outfits it's hardly superior, what are you; thirteen?”

The Providers gave the impression of shuffling non-existent feet in embarrassment at having been found out so easily.

“The Thralls are necessary to the games,” announced a fourth voice quickly recovering its tattered dignity. “We have found athletic competitions the only outlet for our superior minds.”

“Yeah, athletic competitions between girls in sexy outfits you mean,” Buffy just wouldn't let the clothing issue go. 

“We use only inferior beings,” the voice said defensively.

“Yeah, as long as they've got at least a 'B' cup,” Buffy snapped back, “You're disgusting! Perhaps you've not so totally evolved as you think.”

“An interesting speculation, Buffy,” said the brain with the whiny voice, “your people are most challenging. We had hoped that your new blood would improve our stock of Thralls, it is such a pity that you will have to be destroyed.”

“Destroyed?” Buffy gasped as she stepped away from the dome, “Just me or...”

“Just you,” said the first voice.

“Unless...” the whiny voice hinted at a way out; the fourth voice kept its own counsel.

“Unless?” Buffy stepped back towards the dome.

“Unless you agree to serve us for the rest of your life without rebellion,” explained the first voice, “you will be destroyed as will the older male and female that you care so much about. The three younger females will be put to breeding new Thralls while the young male might be trainable as a fighter.”

Buffy made a squeaky, distressed sound in the back of her throat.

“Look,” she tried for a counter offer, “I bet...”

“A WAGER!?” three of the four brains said in unison; the fourth, blue brain, gave the impression of thinking very hard about something.

“Yeah,” Buffy said more confidently; she thought she had a way to get her Mom and all her friends out of this mess and only she need to die or live out the rest of her life fighting and bringing new Thralls into the world. “A bet or one of these wager things.”

“What is the bet?” Asked the first voice.

“I bet...” Buffy began slowly, “...that I can defeat, with or without weapons, your champion.”

“If our champion wins?” asked the whiny brain.

“I and my family stay here and obey you,” Buffy, “We'll do anything you want...even icky stuff, without complaint.”

“If you win?” said the fourth brain who wasn't near as chatty as the other three asked.

“You send my friends home, but I still stay here and work for you,” Buffy announced quietly.

“An interesting offer,” said the first brain, “but I think we can do better, I suggest six of our champions against you, Thrall Buffy.”

“Hey! But that's totally not fair!” Buffy complained.

“I think its very fair,” said whiny brain, “seeing how the alternative is death for you all...MAW-HA-HA!”

In another blink of an eye, Buffy found herself back up on the fighting ground.

0=0=0=0

“A competition,” Golt announced, “between the champions of the Providers and the Thrall Buffy...”

While Golt explained the rather one-sided rules to the competition, Joyce and Giles came over to Buffy.

“What's going on Buffy?” Joyce gave Golt and the fighters who were arriving on the fighting ground a nervous look.

“Look Mom,” Buffy started slowly, “If I defeat those guys,” she pointed to the six Cyclops' standing behind Golt, “you, Giles everyone gets to go home.”

“And if you don't defeat them?” Giles asked the question he knew Joyce couldn't or wouldn't.

“I die,” Buffy shrugged, “whatever happens I stay here...by the way,” Buffy looked deeply into Giles' eyes, “if I lose you have to stay here too,” Buffy took in a shuddering breath, “I'm sixteen, Giles, I don't want to die,” she turned to her mother, “but I can't let you all die either...”

“Buffy!” Joyce cried as realisation struck home.

“No...” Giles shook his head before turning to face Golt, “...I reject your rules as being unfair, if Buffy fights I fight by her side!”

“No Giles,” Buffy cried, “you'll die.”

“Buffy,” Giles said quietly, “if you were to die I might as well not be alive either.”

“Get away from my little girl you...” Joyce drew in a great shuddering breath, “...you bastards!”

Silently, Cordy came to stand next to Buffy, Giles and Joyce.

“Fuck you,” Cordy snarled, “and fuck the horse you rode into town on!”

“Thanks, Cordy,” Buffy smiled at her friend and squeezed her hand gently.

“One for all and all for one,” Xander announced as Willow and himself came to stand next to Buffy leaving Amy by herself.

“Well,” Amy sighed, “might as well make it unanimous.”

Amy came and stood with the rest of the group.

“I would fight at your side friend Buffy,” Tona pushed herself to the front of the crowd and went to stand next to Buffy and her friends.

“Thanks Tona, but,” Buffy sighed sadly, “I don't think we're gonna win, you might want to rethink your choices.”

“I have thought and I have chosen to stand with you and your friends,” Tona replied calmly.

“Your first great choice in life,” Buffy smiled, “and you chose to die? Girl you need to practice.”

“So be it,” Golt announced as more Cyclops' appeared and weapons were handed out to everyone.

The human's stood in a little cluster in the centre of fighting area as the Cyclops' moved to surround them.

“Has anyone got something cool to say?” Buffy asked, “I think its sort of traditional just before you die.”

“Let us to it pell mell,” Giles said quoting from Shakespeare's Richard the Third, “If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell!”

“Giles, I said something cool,” Buffy sighed a moment before there was a bright flash of light and Triskelion disappeared.

0=0=0=0

**Revelo Drive, Sunnydale.**

“Oh good grief!” Giles moaned with some feeling as he pushed himself upright; he could feel carpet under his hands but the world appeared to have gone all blurry, he must have lost his glasses.

“Where...?” Joyce didn't bother to complete the traditional phrase used when waking up from an unexpected blow to the head or indeed instantaneous interstellar travel.

“Is everyone alright?” Buffy asked as she stood up and found she was in her own front room again.

There was a certain amount of muttering as people got to their feet and expressed the opinion that they would probably survive the day and they were glad to be back on Earth. Buffy looked around to make sure all her family and friends were there.

“Where's Tona?” Buffy asked, her voice showing concern for her missing friend.

“I'm afraid she doesn't appear to be here,” Giles announced after a quick visual search of the room.

“Maybe she got sent home to her own planet,” Willow said as she went to comfort Amy who was looking like she was going to faint clean away.

“I'm sure she's fine,” Giles tried to reassure his slayer, “like Willow says, I expect that who or whatever sent us here sent her home.”

“But Giles,” Buffy looked at Giles in despair, “she said she'd always been on Triskelion.”

“I'm sure she's fine,” Giles walked over to stand in front of Buffy, “why would whatever force send us home while keeping your friend Tona on Triskelion?”

“I suppose you're right,” Buffy didn't sound so convinced.

“At least we're all safe home now,” Joyce observed, “Oh my god I've just thought...”

“What's wrong, Mrs Summers?” Giles turned from Buffy to look at Joyce.

“Call me Joyce, Rupert,” Joyce replied absent-mindedly, “I think we've been through enough together to be on first name terms.” Joyce tried to remember what she'd been about to say, “Oh yes, how are we going to explain Buffy and Cordelia's sudden reappearance?”

“Ah, yes,” Giles looked around myopically having still not found his glasses, “erm good point let me think for a moment.” 

Not having any glasses to polish appeared to be having an adverse effect on Giles cognitive abilities.

“Here you go G-man,” Xander passed Giles his lost glasses.

“Thank-you Xander,” Giles put on his glasses and glowered at Xander who'd just broken the 'G-man' rule. Being able to think again, Giles quickly came up with a solution. “Xander, Willow, Amy go home, I don't have to tell you not to mention our little trip to another world and act surprised when you hear that Buffy and Cordelia have been found.”

“Okay,” Willow nodded as she looked with concern at Amy who didn't look at all well; there was an answering nod from Xander before he started to help Willow support Amy.

“I'll see you all at school first thing, alright?” Giles explained.

Again Willow and Xander nodded, Amy being too exhausted to do much of anything.

“Xander help me get Amy back home will you?” Willow asked her concern for her girlfriend growing by the moment.

Watching as the three teens left by the front door Giles came up with part two of his plan.

“Joyce, could you phone for an ambulance?” Giles asked, “I think it would be wise if Buffy and Cordelia where both checked out by a doctor.”

“Of course,” Joyce agreed, “but what do we tell the police, they're bound to get involved?”

“I've thought of that,” Giles continued, “we keep the story simple; I'll say I was visiting you,” he nodded to Joyce, “to see how you were. When I arrived I discover you, Buffy and Cordelia here in your living room.”

“Yeah but how do you explain where we've been for the however many days its been?” Buffy asked as she went to sit on the couch next to Cordy. 

“I'm just coming to that,” Giles took off his glasses to give then yet another polish, one day he felt sure he'd polish the lenses clean away. “As I say we keep it simple; Buffy, Cordelia, when the police question you, you must tell them you have no recollection of what has happened over the last few days.”

“You mean like amnesia?” Buffy asked as she held Cordy's hand in her own.

“That's right,” Giles nodded, “you say that one moment you were in the road after the little upset Cordelia had with the Drivers Ed car, then the next you were standing at your mother's front door dressed as you are now, understand,” Both Cordy and Buffy nodded, “Don't try to embellish anything by making up stories, whatever the police ask you just say 'I don't remember', alright?”

“Yeah, got it,” Buffy nodded her head firmly, “you got that Cordy?”

“Yeah, sure,” Cordelia agreed.

“And I just say I heard the doorbell, opened the door and there they were,” Joyce picked up the phone and dialled nine-one-one, “You think they'll believe that, Rupert?”

“They'll have to,” Giles shrugged, “they couldn't handle the truth.”

0=0=0=0

**Amy's house, the next day.**

“Hi?” Willow called as she looked around Amy's door to see her friend lying in bed, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Amy smiled and pushed herself upright when she saw Willow, “I was just totally exhausted, what with all the magic and like zooming from planet to planet,” Amy patted her bed, “come and sit down.”

Willow crossed the room and sat down on the edge of Amy's bed.

“I brought your clothes back,” Willow held up a plastic bag containing the clothes she'd borrowed from Amy only yesterday, “and I better take mine home.”

“You know you don't have to,” Amy said with a smile.

“W-what?” Willow asked her heart beating like a drum.

“I mean you can always leave a few clothes here for when you next come for a sleepover,” Amy laughed gently, “or if we decide to dash off to another planet or something.”

“I could?” Willow asked.

“Yeah why not?” Amy shrugged, “So what did your mom say when she saw you in my clothes?”

“Not a lot,” Willow explain, “in fact nothing, but...”

“But?” Amy asked.

“Well at breakfast this morning,” Willow explained, “she said she thought it was time I bought my own clothes.”

“Talking of clothes,” Amy gave a slow suggestive smile, “why don't you take yours off, close the door and get into bed with me?”

“You're sure you're strong enough?” Willow as as she kicked off her sneakers and went over and locked Amy's door, “I wouldn't want to make you sick again.”

“Told you,” Amy pulled off the overly big t-shirt she wore to bed, “I was just tired and I've had a good twelve hours sleep,” Amy watched as Willow quickly stripped off her clothes, “I mean we never had that sleepover I promised you.”

Climbing into Amy's bed, Willow snuggled up to Amy and sighed contentedly.

“Maybe that's if you still feel like it,” Willow asked shyly as she ran her hand across Amy's silky smooth body, “afterwards you could teach me how to float a pencil or some thing?”

“Oh don't worry,” Amy moved in to start kissing Willow's soft eager lips, “pencils won't be the only thing that'll be floating!”

0=0=0=0

Down stairs, Ms Madison was reading her newspaper, she glanced over at her scrying bowl to see her daughter in bed with Willow.

“Oh that's so sweet,” she smiled to herself before switching off the spell to give her daughter some privacy.

0=0=0=0

**Sunnydale High School, Wednesday morning.**

Standing across the street from the school, Buffy and Cordelia watched as students made there way into the building. The hospital had given them both a clean bill of health, although they'd said Cordy needed to come back for 'tests'. Although Cordy hadn't said what sort of tests, Buffy wasn't that naïve that she couldn't guess.

“So how do you feel?” Buffy asked not taking her eyes off the school.

“Nervous,” Cordy admitted, “I just know everyone will stare and point and snigger behind our backs.”

“Just remember what Giles told us to say,” Buffy tried to sound supportive but she was having the same thoughts herself, “We don't remember anything about what happened to us, okay?”

“Yeah right,” Cordy nodded, “I just wish that was true.”

“Giles said if you say it enough it will be true...” Buffy turned to look at Cordy, “...if it gets too bad you can always hang with me.”

“Yeah,” a smile slowly came to Cordy's lips, “I think I'll do that,” she took hold of Buffy's elbow and almost dragged her across the street towards the school, “You know what I think we should do?”

“Erm,” Buffy almost had to run to keep up with a fast moving Cordelia, “what?”

“I think we should demand that they put us both on the cheerleading squad, because you know what?”

“What?” Buffy found herself being guided towards the main entrance.

“I wanna cheer,” Cordy explained as she burst into the school corridor, “you wanna cheer, right?”

“Erm yeah,” Buffy let herself be led through the school, “why not?”

“We're both hot,” Cordy admitted, “although I'm hotter than you!”

“No way are you hotter than me,” Buffy protested.

“Whatever!” surprisingly Cordy didn't argue, “Lets get back on that cheerleading horse and spit in the eye of all those gossips and cheer and dance, for tomorrow we might find ourselves whisked off to another planet and be fighting for our lives!”

“Since you put it like that,” Buffy agreed, “lets cheer!”

0=0=0=0

**Revelo Drive, Wednesday evening.**

Walking up to Buffy's front door, Giles felt like a nervous school boy who was about to ask a girl out on a first date. Buffy was out on patrol, Amy, Cordy, Willow and Xander were all busily employed researching the next threat to Sunnydale's peace and security; Buffy said her mother would be at home so now would be a good time for 'the talk'.

Giles rang the front door bell and waited, how to start, he asked himself, would Joyce just laugh in his face and call the police? Well, he'd have to take his chances. The door opening distracted him from these useless musings.

“Rupert,” Joyce said with a smile as she opened the door, “how are you, what...”

“Erm,” Giles fidgeted for a moment or two, unsure what to say.

“You look serious,” Joyce said with some concern, “you better come in, nothing bad's happened, has it?”

“No,” Giles shook his head as he stepped into the house, “Erm...Joyce, I need to talk to you about your daughter; explain what she is and what she does...”

The End.


End file.
